In 25-year-old Pallavi Baruah’s homeland, the Brahmaputra river island of Majuli, making a living is as vulnerable as the place itself. Farmers grow chickpeas, green leafy vegetables and rice, but farm tracts can “disappear” overnight. Before taking his project to Majuli, Bora trained 100 low-caste rural women in Kamrup district in the art of making bags, office folders and files from water hyacinth. Bringing innovation to the small farm for a bumper cropA farmer shooed away a young man in 2008 when he asked to borrow the man’s mechanical seed sower, a novelty those days in villages of Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district. Shailendra provides free consultancy to farmers and visits fields to monitor crops grown in accordance with his advice.

Source: Hindustan Times April 02, 2018 02:15 UTC