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The banana is not just valued for its fruit. Its stem too is becoming a popular food in Tamil Nadu. At least half-a-dozen small agro-industries have sprouted in the state that process, package and sell ‘banana stem dices’. In…

Where do you begin if you want to start your own enterprise? Most young people don’t know. They search for answers, scanning newspapers, trudging to various government offices to figure out schemes and to banks to enquire about…

MEenachil and Kanhirappally taluk in Kerala’s Kottayam district are considered the ‘rubber capital’ of India. It was from here that rubber cultivation spread across Kerala and subsequently to different parts of India.…

Groups of farmers regularly visit Mala in Thrissur district after learning of this prime vegetable growing belt from the media. They invariably return impressed by the profusion of tomatoes. Apart from tomatoes, fields in some 20 acres are…

Jackfruit was born and cultivated in India but how many varieties do we have? Nobody really knows. But ask Thomas Kattakkayam, a 71-year-old farmer in Kottayam district, and he can provide a few clues. Kattakkayam has…

Jackfruit isn’t prized in Punjab. It doesn’t have the status of the aromatic basmati rice or the tongue tickling sarson ka saag. Yet two Punjabis, Manmohan Singh and Harvinder Singh, whose families migrated to Malaysia decades…

The road to the spectacular Athirapally Falls passes through Pariyaram, a little known village near Chalakudy town in Thrissur district of Kerala. Tourists don’t stop here. There is no reason to except one — mangosteen, a fruit…

In 1708, Shahu Maharaj, grandson of Chhatrapati Shivaji, the great Maratha leader, conquered Ajinkyatara, a fort built by Raja Bhoj in the 12th century. Ajinkyatara’s strategic location in Satara district of Maharashtra helped…

Chaliya Kunhambu, 64, is standing on a road, 30 km away from Kasargod, the district’s headquarters. If he could connect all the surangas he has dug in 50 years, he would reach Kasargod walking underground all the way! Kunhambu has…

In 2007, Greenhills Estate, a coffee plantation in Kodagu, fell on hard times. Its owner, A.T. Chengapa, had taken ill two years earlier and couldn’t manage his affairs. Grappling with a financial crisis, he sold 25 acres to pay off…