A problem that you do not seem to have considered is time from planting to harvest-- If we're talking about lifting people out of poverty,it seems that someting fast and reliable might be better than slow. Amaryllids would appear to be too slow.. Have you checked with any Indian botanists?. Also, what area are you thinking?.... South near Mumbai? Rajasthan--where it's near desert? near Agra? Vastly different climatologies. Check with the USDA who might even be willing to provide seeds. They provided scarce desert grass samples for me back in about 1960 for me that could provide forage for goats, in Syria. The research for what's needed-- or could work-- has probably already been done. If all that's needed is the money... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joe Shaw" <jshaw@opuntiads.com> To: <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 11:24 AM Subject: [pbs] Bulbs for microcredit business, many questions for IBS members > Hi Gang, > > > > A professor friend (from India) and I are talking over small business > ideas for people in rural India. The idea would be to provide seeds and a > bit of start-up money (less than $100) for a few families to grow a > specialty crop that can be sold to people in the cities of India, or > perhaps overseas.