coping creatively with climate complexity

Scarcity of resources often makes people despondent. People learn to adjust, adapt or just succumb. But, sometimes they transcend the adversity through a creative innovation. Let me share one story in which the scarcity of water triggered a very interesting innovation in cotton. Vikas Shinde and his wife Pramila own nearly half a hectare of land in a village named Pingalwada in dry part of

Letter to farmers in north dakota suffering from the monopoly of monsanto in agriculture

A response to blog posts like this one.Well, you have an alternative. Read up the Honeybee database on sustainable agricultural innovations available at sristi.org and honeybee.org.You can use the open source example of farmer-based solutions to your problems. Please try these out and write to us.For example in cotton growing, you can plant okra around the cotton crop as a border crop. It belongs

Vinoba Bhave on Gandhi

Here is Vinoba Bhave sharing his thoughts on Gandhi:When, still a child, I was drawn by Bengal and the Himalayas. I cherished dreams of going to these places. In Bengal it was the upsurge symbolized by Vande Mataram that called me, in the Himalayas it was the Jnana-Yoga. When in 1916 I left home I wanted at the same time to go both to the Himalayas and to Bengal. The city of Kashi was on the way

Gandhi's Higher Standard of Leadership

It's Gandhi's birthday today. In perhaps a statement of our times, I was first reminded of him when I saw him on the homepage of Google. :) Then, I thought of my dear friend Jayesh Patel at the Gandhi Ashram, who is an exemplar of Gandhian values; and at some point, I happened upon an unread book sitting on my desk -- A Higher Standard of Leadership: Lessons from the Life of Gandhi, by

The Missing Celebrant on Independence Day

An article by Ramachandran Guha, on Aug 16, 2009:It is well known that when India became free on the August 15, 1947, Mahatma Gandhi declined to join the festivities in New Delhi. While his follower, Jawaharlal Nehru, spoke in the Council Hall about India's tryst with destiny, and the crowds danced on the streets outside, Gandhi was in Calcutta, seeking to restore peace between Hindus and Muslims