Feature | Farm Chat | Makeshift magazine

Working the rural fields of India’s Maharashtra state can be lonely and backbreaking work for small-scale farmers. So Anil Bandawane, a farmer and engineer, created a Facebook group called ‘Baliraja’ — farmer king, roughly — with about a dozen fellow farmers in 2012. The members chatted about their work, posed questions, and traded tips, building ties they couldn’t form alone on the farm. They also began filling the isolating divide that can lead struggling or financially desperate farmers to suicide (a significant problem in rural India).

The group grew rapidly. Anil began to see the massive potential for a bigger forum where farmers could connect with each other and talk with experts who answered questions in real time. He expanded Baliraja to the instant messaging service WhatsApp, which now counts more than 1,000 farmers plus agricultural experts, consultants, and suppliers.

READ MORE: http://mkshft.org/farm-chat/

Feature | Innovative Hearing Aid | Makeshift Magazine

Feature | Arranged Marriage Detectives | Makeshift Magazine

Feature | Military Dogs | Motherland Magazine

A LOOK INSIDE THE TRAINING GROUND FOR OUR NATION’S FOUR LEGGED SOLDIERS.

---

We’re sitting atop a rocky outcrop, overlooking a forest clearing. It is a cloudy evening in Gwalior as we watch Flame, a German Shepherd, walk cautiously and attentively alongside his handler, Sitaram Meena.

Flame approaches the edge of the thick jungle, where two men are concealed underneath the natural cover. Five minutes later, after diligent sniffing and intense observation, Flame breaks his silence, having located the two men. He knows he’s cracked it, looking eagerly to Sitaram for acknowledgement of his triumph.

Flame is in training at the National Training Centre for Dogs (NTCD), a Government of India institute under the Border Security Force (BSF). As Sitaram pats him, the unit’s Assistant Commandant, Dr Shankar, challenges Sitaram to push Flame harder in these mock drills. Today, Flame and Sitaram’s test is just a harmless simulation. Soon, they actually might face a lethal encounter at the areas affected by the armed proponents of Maoist struggle in India.

http://www.motherlandmagazine.com/wag-the-dogs/

Feature | One Liter Farming | Makeshift Magazine

One farmer’s free invention could produce India’s calories using a tiny fraction of the water

Sundaram Verma says that to nourish each plant in the sun-scorched fields of India’s Rajasthan state, farmers have to pour out 20 liters of water, on multiple occasions—a hot commodity in drought years. What if, he proposed, the same seedling only needed a single liter of water to survive?

Read more here: http://mkshft.org/one-liter-farming/

Hemant Suthar: Fractal Ink

An interview with Hemant Suthar, co-founder, Fractal Ink Design Studio