For Rapar, farming country that receives very little rain and plans on that basis.
Farming where rain is not assumed
Rapar sits in eastern Kutch on the fringe of the Rann - dryland cultivation, castor, livestock, and very little water. Agriculture here is not a matter of optimising a good year. It is a matter of surviving a normal one.
Expectations calibrated downward
Where conditions are consistently hard, people adjust what they consider possible, and that adjustment is sensible. It also becomes indiscriminate.
Clients describe not attempting things that have nothing to do with rainfall - education, a different trade, moving - because the general expectation of difficulty has spread to cover everything. Pessimism that is accurate about the weather is applied to domains where it is simply wrong.
What the work addresses
Sorting realistic assessment from generalised defeat. Water scarcity is real and will not be argued away. Whether your daughter can qualify as a nurse is a completely different question that has been filed under the same heading.
Pulling those apart usually frees several decisions that have been dormant for years.
Sessions
Online, in Gujarati or Kutchi-inflected Gujarati.
Frequently asked questions
- Things really are difficult here. Is this just positive thinking?
- No. Pretending conditions are easier than they are would be useless. The work is on what is actually within your control.
