Journey of a woman: From daily wager to a successful farmer

• West Singhbhumi (Jharkhand): Gulbari Go, a tribal female farmer of hilly forest area, smiles looking at crops flourishing in her farm. She says "It was hard to imagine profitable farming on land which we took on lease. Now we get a daily income of 1500 Rupees after selling vegetables."

Gulbari Go earned an income of 60,000 Rupees from farming on her 15 Decimal of land with the help of machan vidhi, one of the modern techniques in organic farming. She is one of the most successful female farmers in her area who makes organic manure on her own and also sells the vegetables in the market.

Gulbari Go is making her finances strong on the land which she has taken on the lease. It has now become a significant medium of livelihood for her. She used to sell wood from the jungles to raise her children but now she is a successful vegetable vendor.

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Gulbari Go (30 years), who lives in Baripi village, 10 kms far from Khuntpani block of west Singhbhumi district of Jharkhand, tells by showing the crops of bitter melon (karela) done with Machan vidhi, " Earlier, This farm was not that fertile. We used to sow seeds once in a year during the rains. But I am doing vegetable farming with machan vidhi after coming back from the farmer training. I grew paddy crops from shri vidhi last year which grew upto six quintals (kuntals). As Gurbari Go prepares organic manure on her own, so she earns more profit in small land.

Gulbari Go has a small farming land. But she is doing organic farming with modern techniques by taking farm on lease which helps her in taking care of household expenditures at ease. Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojna (MKSP) is running all across the nation under the act of National Rural Livelihood Mission by the Department of Rural Development. Teaching modern techniques of farming to female farmers is the main motive of this scheme. It also helps in increasing their profit margin.

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Learned New Techniques in Training

Gulbari Go started saving 10 Rupees weekly from the meetings of Sakhi Mandal since 2015. Gulbari Go says, " When I started learning new techniques in the meetings, I took loan from the community. I took farm on lease from that money and I also bought a water pump. I attended two or three training of working in the farm field. I learnt Shri Vidhi and Machan Vidhi for organic farming in a small capital."

Earned 1500 Per Day

Gulbari further says, " I started working in farm fields since last year. It cost me around 15000 Rupees in the process from Machan to sowing in just 15 Decimal of land. I earn 1500 Rupees per day by selling Bitter Melon, String Beans and Lady's Finger. Also, we had a good production of paddy crops by Shri Vidhi. Now we don't have to buy paddy crops/rice for the whole year."

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