Agriculture
Since 1987, RASTA has been focusing on sustainable agriculture as one of the focal point of intervention as the livelihood of the 95% of the inhabitants of the region are from agriculture and moreover the farming sector has been facing major problems like diminishing productivity, increased incidences of pest and diseases, lack of availability of appropriate technologies at farmer level and weak extension services. RASTA has undertaken a number of activities especially awareness generation, research and extension, infrastructure development activities to support farmers.
Women's empowerment
La condición de la mujer en el distrito de Wayanad había sido muy patético y hacia atrás hasta los últimos años. Las mujeres de la población se compone de 50% of which about 70% depender de la agricultura para su sustento y el trabajo agrícola. Se dedican a estas obras después de completar todas sus tareas domésticas. Ellos nunca tuvieron la seguridad de que mañana o el hábito del ahorro. A medida que fueron pasando sin la posesión de activos y la estabilidad económica, the financial institutions like banks were unwilling to extend loan facilities for them. At this context RASTA initiated to the formation of Self Help Groups ( SHGs ) for the women in villages. RASTA had been the first among the NGOs to form Self Help Groups in Wayanad. By the time the SHGs se han convertido en un modelo a seguir en el escenario de desarrollo de la aldea. Ahora hay cerca de 900 SHGs facilitated by RASTA. The project was supported Intercorporation, and Rb foundation.
Apoyo a las Comunidades Indígenas
Tribal communities contribute 17% of the total population in Wayanad district. Eight different communities are living in this hilly and backward district. Debido a la afluencia de inmigrantes de diversas partes del estado de estas comunidades nativas consiguieron marginados y han sido enfrentan varios problemas, como la falta de propiedad de la tierra, unemployment, la inseguridad alimentaria y la falta de servicios básicos. During the past 15 año RASTA trató de mejorar la situación de las comunidades tribales de varias maneras.
Technology Dissemination
The technologies developed for application at village level, whether it is agriculture related, water harvesting or health and hygiene, are often away from the vicinity of common man. The role of an intermediary to introduce, fine tune and modify technologies are very important if it has to be adopted at village level. Quiet often the technologies need to be field tested in the specific local conditions before replicating. Being an organization responsive to the local needs, RASTA found a big gap in the technology promotion aspects in the district and it has undertaken it as a primary role in its functioning. During the past 20 years RASTA has been able to introduce, fine-tune and replicate a number of technologies in agriculture and allied sectors to improve the quality of life of rural men and women.
