Rural India is home of the original gig-economy worker. Enterprising villagers hop from tilling fields to tending shops, to door-to-door selling each day. Read the latest trends in micro-enterprises, rural start-ups and the shifting livelihoods of India’s villagers.
Livelihoods
Palghar’s tribal farmers sow and sell as a collective to reap benefits
Collective farming is not only helping farmers sell their produce far and wide but has also arrested migration and increased the well-being of farmer families
Banni pastoralists see success in battle for survival
The Maldharis of the vast Banni grasslands in Gujarat show how people cope with enforced change caused either by natural forces or human intervention and how vulnerability can be turned into opportunity
Convenience drives farm practices more than sustainability
For all talk of sustainable farming practices than often entail increased drudgery, there is a clear trend that farmers are swayed by convenience and ease of use more than anything else
Faulty farm ponds pockmark tribal villages in Palghar
Constructed under the Maharashtra government’s Jalyukt Shivar scheme to end water scarcity in the state, these structures hold no water. Some were washed away in the first rains, making a mockery of the implementation
Integrated organic farming revives Nemmeli’s fields
A holistic method of organic farming has reversed the harm reached to Nemmeli village due to high-intensity, high-inputs agriculture. It has also helped in pushing back soil salinity
Small vegetable and poultry farmers severely affected by demonetization drive
Three weeks into the surprise announcement by the government to withdraw high denomination currency notes from circulation, it is now clear that producers of perishable commodities such as vegetable and poultry have been seriously impacted
Trade tumbles at Sonepur cattle fair after demonetization
The severe scarcity of currency notes have resulted in business at India’s largest cattle fair, which is conducted entirely in cash, crashing to a halt with most sellers returning home empty handed
Currency tsunami hits Kerala fisher village
The poor women of Anju Thengue island village in Kerala have been caught unprepared by the ban on banknotes that has seen prices crash and a near total collapse of the fish market
Small vegetable farmers in Maharashtra suffer blow from demonetization
The people in rural Pune are past the initial shocks of demonetization and are now coming to grips with it, but there are signs of distress among growers and sellers of fruits and vegetables