Livelihood

July 30, 2020

Swadesh in Bastar: How Lift Irrigation Changed Lives in Kelaur Village

Recognizing the importance of having a perennial source of water when planning any agricultural activity and change, the SHG women of Kelaur, supported by PRADAN and government departments, installed solar energy-powered water pumps, leading them to cultivating vegetables and fruit in their homesteads, which brought about a sea change in their economic status and self-sufficiency
July 17, 2020

Agriculture and MGNREGA as Rural Livelihoods amidst Covid-19

Using the provisions under MGNREGA to gainfully engage the thousands of migrant labour, who are fleeing big cities and returning to their villages, is a productive way to turn the global crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic into an opportunity for creating assets that support rural livelihoods and lead to self-sufficiency.
June 26, 2020

Facilitating Change: Reflections of a Development Practitioner

Entering a village, familiarizing oneself with the people and their lives, gaining their confidence, understanding the terrain and the livelihoods, suggesting interventions, facilitating new practices, encouraging participation, meeting daily challenges and celebrating successes are some of the things a Development Practitioner experiences in her attempt to uplift rural lives
June 5, 2019

The Women of Unnatipatha Cheli Samiti: The New Entrepreneurs

Making a tentative beginning at goat-rearing, the women of Unnatipatha Cheli Samiti taste success and cannot be held back. They now monitor the health of the animals and deal with the markets too; thereby increasing their confidence and decreasing their dependency on men.
December 4, 2018

Sustainable Integrated Farming: A Scalable Model for Small and Marginal Farmers

Conceptualizing and grounding a development model appropriate to the diverse needs and priorities of different sections of the community, and, at the same time conserving the eco-system of the local livelihoods is a challenge of a very high order.
November 15, 2018

Koraput District: A Sustainable Livelihood Prototype

“Shifting from individualfocused sectoral thinking to livelihood-basket thinking” proves very successful in Lamtaput block, Koraput district, resulting in enhanced farmers’ income, establishing women’s identities as farmers and integrating ecological aspects so as to generate sustainable livelihoods
October 15, 2018

Plastic Bottles: Paving the Way to Perennial Farming

Finding a new use for discarded plastic bottles, now a ubiquitous and deathly hazard to the environment, a little revolution is underway in a tiny block in Khunti district, where tribal farmers are using it to water their crops in an innovative way through machan cultivation, opening up possibilities of greening land that lies arid most of the year.
September 14, 2018

Agripreneurship: Helping Revive Smallholders

Promoting a community-based model of agricultural advisory services through Community Service Providers has helped PRADAN improve the lives of smallholder families through increased agricultural productivity
April 17, 2018

The Being and Doing of CSR

Emphasising the distinction between the being and the doing capabilities of a person and a community, the article stresses how corporate support in nurturing civil society, through collectives, will lead to holistic development of the poor, knowing they have the potential to bring about change in themselves and the world around them
April 7, 2018

Free- grazing Cattle: Overcoming the Menace

Large tracts of up-land areas left fallow due to free cattle grazing challanged when the community inittaited laws to restore these lands through pigeon pea cultivation ad make laws to restrict and penalize open grazing