Grassroots women in Marathwada are using climate-smart technology to get a better price for their produce in the market
Renuka Wanve, from Govindpur village in Osmanabad, Maharashtra, used to support her husband in growing sugarcane on their farm – a crop that required lots of input resources. Renuka first got associated with SSP in mid-2020 through their dairy program, and began to attend their monthly meetings and training regularly. She started growing organic vegetables, as taught by SSP, on her farm and sold the produce throughout the village to earn extra income for the family. However, she noticed that there was a lot of spoilage of vegetables, and she had to limit the amount of vegetables she grew to prevent them from rotting.
The ‘sabjee cooler’ project by SSP, in partnership with NABARD and RuKart, was started to address this problem precisely. The aim was that small farmers could prevent excessive vegetable spoilage, store their vegetables in a way that maintained freshness and get a better price for their produce. The benefit of the sabjee cooler is that it requires only water to maintain the cooling, and no other resources like electricity.
Renuka availed of a loan from her group to build a sabjee cooler. Being business-savvy, she realized the benefits of vegetable coolers and started a stall selling the stored vegetables along the roadside, which was a very successful endeavor. She was able to increase her vegetable production, now growing spinach, onion, bitter gourd, brinjal etc. on 10 gunta of land. She now earns around 500-1000 rupees per day approximately.
Now she is planning to buy one more sabjee cooler to store more vegetables and grow her business. Through her support and guidance, five women farmers are in the process of constructing sabjee coolers on their farms. Such grassroots adaptations of agro-technologies which are appropriate for small and marginal farmers coupled with entrepreneurial spirit in grassroots women are leveraging local transformations.
Swayam Shikshan Prayog
17 December, 2021