Small land holding, dependence on rainfed farming, lack of access to new skills and technologies, increasing production costs all put the forest fringe tribal farmers at an edge. The women who have to assume the role of caregivers due to the cultural construct face the challenges daily to feed their family with nutritious food and to get some opportunity to support her family. The story of 33 years old Laxmi Hembram, a mother of two from Tiyakati village, Jhargram District is not an exception too. But Laxmi has good communication and leadership skills and could dare to dream to change her life. She has been identified as one of the potential Community Resource Person (CRP) under the project “Integrated Landscape Management for Sustainable Agriculture” under the RKVY program being implemented by IBRAD. Lakshmi has received the training on establishment of Organic Nutrition Garden, production of organic inputs, nursery raising, etc from IBRAD. She has started a nutrition garden covering 8.25 decimal land and started cultivating different types of vegetables in an organic manner. She produces Neemastra and Dashapurni as pesticide and Amritjal as a growth promoter for the plants which she uses in her nutrition garden. Her daily needs are met from the nutrition garden from where she gets consumable vegetables like beans, brinjal, okra, bottle gourd, pumpkin, tomato, chili, and various leafy vegetables. She also sells the surplus to the market occasionally. In the month of June 2020, she earned Rs 300 by selling 10 kg papaya and 10 Kg Okra.
A vermicompost unit is established in her land from which 170 kg vermi compost is collected between the months of June to November 2020. She used 90 kg compost in the Paddy field and for vegetable cultivation in agriculture field as well as in the kitchen garden. She also could sell 30 kg vermicompost in the month of November 2020 and earned Rs. 900.
But Laxmi does not confine herself for her own benefits only. She is training her fellow villagers on organic inputs production and is also monitoring whether the nutrition gardens are properly maintained or not. She also looks after the activity done by other villagers (27 villagers) in her village and in nearby Tukubhula village where 21 persons are involved in the project activities.
Looking into the capacity of Lakshmi she was engaged by the Block office to train the SHG members under the block. She is confident enough to explain and demonstrate her activities in front of the outsiders.
Laksmi is an example of how a woman empowered with proper skills and provided with an enabling environment to use her latent potentials can lead from the front to bring changes at the village level.
