White Jamun and Sabai Grass

Dear Reader,

While in school, I remember buying jamun from a vendor who came to our street in June-July. He carried the purple berries in a bamboo basket and called out “Jamun le lo”. We kids would run out with coins of Rs2 and line up to buy them. There was no measurement – he put a handful of berries in a palash leaf and gave it to each of us. The best part of eating jamun was the change in tongue colour from pink to purple.

Last week, I learnt that we also have white jamun! IT engineer Vikrant Kale grows them in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar (now Ahilyabainagar), earning Rs 28 lakh from an acre. He sells the fruits at Rs200 to Rs240 per kg in Shirdi and Vashi, but the bigger source of his income is white jamun saplings sold at Rs150 per piece. 

Vikrant also grows apples at 43 degrees Celsius (over two acres) and harvests 18 kg per tree. Apple cultivation is no longer restricted to cooler climates. Vikrant says he combined his IT studies with horticulture to create profitable farming opportunities in the drought-prone region. You can read his story here.

From West Bengal, my colleague Partho wrote about Dipali Mura, a tribal woman, who was married at 17 and earned Rs50 per day by making ropes. She fought extreme poverty to set up a profitable Sabai grass home business that now clocks over Rs10 lakh in annual revenues. She also trains tribal women in making grass items and is a role model for her community. The story has the details of her struggles and success. Do look it up.

Our other interesting story is from Odisha’s Sundargarh district. In 2009, when 10 women in the Sundargarh district pooled Rs50 each to make puffed rice laddus, little did they know what the future held. Today, Dibyajyoti SHG earns Rs2 crore annually by selling 43 types of millet cookies and snacks throughout the state, writes my colleague Malay.

The women have also started a millet café and clocks Rs2 crore annually in turnover. The power of collective action is immense, and the members now want to start a large-scale unit to empower at least a thousand women. 

Our Sunday story is on Bera, a village in Rajasthan’s Pali district where leopards have been coexisting peacefully with humans for many generations. 

Happy Reading!

Warmly,
Rashmi