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Three months ago, Nagaraju G.H. started an unusual venture, probably the first of its kind in India. He set up a mobile neem crushing factory mounted on two trucks, and he now travels to the doorsteps of farmers to supply neem seed powder…

For 15 years Prashanth, a 37-year-old villager living near Thirthahally in Karnataka, slaved at a granite quarry and a petrol station, although he was an educated man who had completed a pre-university course. The little he earned…

Four years ago, Dr N.S. Sudhakar, a professor, returned home to Mysore from Eritrea with a packet of teff seeds in his baggage. “This is a wonder cereal,” he thought. “We have to grow it in India.” Dr…

As cropping season approaches in Kasaragod district of Kerala, farmers begin to get edgy. Wild animals from nearby forests start plundering their fields and, in a few hours, months of carefully nurtured crops are ruined. This season, a…

On September 28 an interested group of farmers was escorted to an unusual field at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) in Thrissur. There they saw an amazing 600 accessions of okra or bhindi growing in the field with some…

The 18-km drive from Kannur town to Mayyil in Kerala ends in a diorama of paddy glistening in its fields. It is a wonderful sight and the verdant fields speak of local prosperity. Not long ago, these same fields were fallow. Growing…

When travellers alight from buses in the busy Muttipala area of Manjeri city in Malappuram district of Kerala they can now have a quick bite at the Alnas Jackfruit Restaurant, the only one of its kind in the country. Started by…

Govind Bhai of Nimas village in Nagore district of Rajasthan has a grassroots technology that is in demand in rural Maharashtra, Goa and Kerala. He is an expert in ‘ada bore’, a method of digging bore wells horizontally instead…

Four years ago, 23-year-old C.V. Srinidhi, a computer science graduate, decided to try his hand at natural farming. His family had an acre lying unused. His first attempt was a total disaster. But he summoned courage and tried again.…

A profusion of flowers might just change the destiny of Wayanad, Kerala’s most backward district, infamous for drought and farmer suicides. Thanks to an amazing flower festival taking place here for five consecutive years, the…