Thenpathi has a small hamlet of landless daily-wage workers who reside within the Kaveripoompattinam panchayat limits of Mayiladuthurai district. The hamlet has 96 households and the inhabitants belong to the Schedule Caste. 90% of these villagers earn from agriculture and fishing practices, and their incomes vary depending on the season.

According to the SAM records turned up during last month, most of the severely malnourished people in the district belong to tribal communities. 47 children are from tribal communities amongst the 60, who diagnosed with severe malnutrition. Even though there are 13 children from general category, the count from the former sees a scary surge.

What about sipping the hot evening tea with pepper tinted spicy cookies or a slice of plumcake in jackfruit flavour? Basa Agro Food would be the right choice for those enticing cravings. Being a small venture began from a village named Trikkaippetta didn’t curb Basa Agro Food from dreaming of seizing wide horizons. Dollloping Wayanad’s evenings with an array of Kerala flavours, Basa became an everyday presence in Wayanad’s households these days. Made with Kerala’s own appetizing flavours like jackfruit, black pepper, ginger, curry leaves, bamboo rice and Bird's eye chillies, Basa’s cookies and cakes have another story to serve.

After pursuing Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering, Sandhya, a native of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, joined a leading car parts manufacturing company in Mumbai and continued working there till 2020 before she learnt that her younger child suffered from a heart related illness.

Around 10 Irular families are living in a tiny land space in the middle of a farming field in Jakkampettai, a village in Villupuram District. It took us 3-4 hours to reach Jakkampettai from one of the core areas in Chennai. Men belonging to those Irular families often travel to other nearby villages and districts to earn a living. Women work as daily wage farm labors in the same village and take care of their kids.

Now-a-days seed markets are flooded with several HYV and Hybrid varieties of seeds.  Likewise the use of inorganic chemical fertilizers and pesticides have also been increased many fold. Farmers are attracted to it for bumper production, more income and profit. In spite of that there are some farmers in Koraput district who still prefer traditional farming practices with indigenous seeds.

Women are backbone of the society. However, rural women today have been suffering a lot due to the feeling of helplessness and lack of decision-making capabilities in financial matters. Women belonging to low socio-economic groups generally face financial crisis to fulfill daily needs which forms a vicious cycle of financial problems, malnutrition, lack of education and poor living conditions etc.

Traditional knowledge of medicinal plants and herb-based home-remedy systems are popular in India. Age-old Ayurveda system of treatment and thousands of folk practices that flourished were well-accepted by the people of Kerala. Wayanad district is well-known for its medicinal plant wealth and community knowledge associated with it. Conversely, the natural population of most of the potential medicinal species and rich traditional knowledge in the region are dwindling at an alarming pace.

Landraces of millets are preferred by farm families since time immemorial not only for their high nutritional qualities, but also inherent capacities to withstand weather changes, and for pest and disease resistant traits. Although, these crops are part of the food culture in Kolli hills (Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu), over the last three decades farmers have moved to cultivating cash crops like cassava, coffee and pepper.

Tribes are from the underprivileged section of society and often live in marginal physical environment. Migration is a significant phenomenon among Malyali tribes. Small land holdings, lack of work, and higher wages prompt them to migrate in search of livelihood. Additionally, growing cash crops abundantly has reduced their access to fruits, vegetables and millets that once grew in their fields.