Najmath Raheem, from Vypady village in Wayanad, Kerala is leading women in her community to become financially independent and empowered after she became a mentor and leader with SSP.
After the devastating floods of 2018, Najmath and her family faced economic difficulties, as 2 acres of their land was destroyed and couldn’t be used for paddy cultivation anymore. Deciding that she had to find an alternate source of income, Najmath took a loan from SSP’s Community Resilience Fund (CRF) and started goat rearing. Over the years, she attended various trainings organized by SSP – such as vegetable cultivation using the ‘one-acre farming’ model, jackfruit snacks production, standardizing and packaging of products, mushroom cultivation etc. In 2020, Najmath and four women from her village started a Sakhi Farmers Group, Vypadi, one of SSP’s first women’s groups in Kerala.
Between 2018 and 2022, Najmath and the women in her Sakhi Farmers Group, began implementing bio-farming techniques and vegetable cultivation at a large scale. Najmath was also able to integrate her goat rearing practice with the farming, creating manure and improving the quality of fodder using farm resources itself. In 2021, Najmath joined the newly created Keravriksha Farmer Producer Company as a promoter and advisor on farming. She helped link more farmers to join the FPO as shareholders, and identify opportunities for training farmers. As a leader and mentor, Najmath was successfully able to bring 50 new farmers as shareholders to the FPO. Today, Najmath sells her vegetables at the local Kudumbashree market and to the FPO of which she is a part. She is earning an income of Rs.6000 per season from the vegetable cultivation and another Rs.30,000 per year from goat rearing.
With greater interaction with entrepreneurs and other leaders from SSP over the years, Najmath started the business of arrowroot cultivation in 2021. Arrowroot is a traditional root vegetable, whose powder is valuable for its medicinal properties. This traditional practice is common in the area, it requires low investment and has high returns. In the future, she would like to link to local Ayurvedic Centers and directly sell her arrowroot powder to them at a large scale to increase her income.
When asked about her family’s support for her work, Najmath says, “We were in a very difficult economic situation after the floods. Initially, I joined the Sakhi Farmers Group, Vypady only as a means of earning some income. Because we were able to help with the household finances, our husbands and families supported us in our work in the community. Today, I have a good standing in the community and I am well respected and recognized for my work in helping women farmers.”
Swayam Shikshan Prayog
January 5, 2023