As demonstrated by Haribhau Doye, a Wadi plot-holder in Padampur, a small village close to Deori town of Gondia district in Maharashtra, jackfruit is a good fruit-tree choice for Central India.

A farmer in Mohpur tehsil of Nanded district of Maharashtra, Bomanna Linge, has reduced the cost of barbed-wire fencing by using using live, hardwood stumps of the salai tree (Boswelia serrata) as poles for the barbed wire.

Cashew co-operatives set up in South Gujarat by BAIF’s associate organisation, DHRUVA, produce a substantial amount of cashew kernel. A by-product is cashew shell, which is removed in the process. By itself cashew shell can be used only as fuel in the furnaces used for processing kernel.

Raghunath Choudhary of Golderi village in Nashik district, Maharashtra, is a Wadi plot-holder with a difference. He is a traditional herbal medicine practitioner who acquired his knowledge from his father and grandfather.

Kerria lacca, a tiny insect, feeds on leaves of some trees and secretes a resin known as lac. The resin is processed to yield shellac, which has uses in the aeronautics, paper, paints and varnish industries.

Resources developed under a Wadi programme through agro-horti-forestry, soil and water conservation and water resource development, and benefits accruing from the agri-business component, create a platform for generating good income from livestock.

Though primarily aimed at families owning at least 1-acre of cultivable land, BAIF-Wadi also covers landless families, through:

Women’s self-help groups (SHGS) set up in BAIF-Wadi projects are engaged in a diverse range of income-generation activities including:

Though set up primarily to procure, process and sell fruit produce from Wadi plots, cooperatives set up in BAIF-Wadi projects are engaged in a diverse range of activities for the benefit of members.

Supported by BAIF-DHRUVA, Wadi-owning tribal families in remote villages of South Gujarat have been successfully engaged in cashew production, procurement, processing and marketing for over a decade.