INDIA ($4,000)
Vegetable Cultivation and Vending
Project Coordinator - B. Amuthapriya

30-60 women from 30 self-help groups in Madurai District, Tamil Nadu are participating in this two-year project.

Each self-help group will receive $100. The seed money of $40-$80 will be loaned to 1 or 2 members per group. Beneficiaries will engage in small businesses such as growing, vending or drying vegetables. The women will engage in motivation training in leadership and entrepreneurship. Loans will be repaid at $5 per month, based on an average loan of $50. Anticipated economics per month are:

ACTIVITY	GROSS INCOME	EXPENSES	LOAN PAYMENT	NET INCOME
Vegetable vending	$80	$50	$5	$25
Dry vegetables	$70	$50	$5	$15

From Dr. R. Kannan’s site visit report, “ECDT has good rapport with people, and has formed 40 women self-help groups. ECDT also runs five adult literacy centres, which benefit 150 adults. Activities planned for the self-help groups are multi-dimensional; legal literacy to women, micro-enterprise development, environmental awareness, popularizing bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides. The proposed activities are viable because the target villages are cultivating vegetables as main crop. Value addition, drying vegetables, will fetch more profit.”

report from partner

Project Completed: June 30, 2011