Rohini Dhole is helping farmers in her village adopt climate-smart farming methods
Belonging to a small landholding family, Rohini and her husband engaged in the cultivation of cash crops like Soyabean and Sugarcane on their 4 acre farm. However, uncertain monsoons and repeated droughts has put the family in a precarious economic situation. In 2022, SSP began to work in Rohini’s village and she learnt about the Women-led Climate Resilient Farming (WCRF) model, food security and conservation of natural resources.
Inspired by the trainings, Rohini negotiated with her husband and installed a vermicompost bed on her farm. She also began to practice organic farming on a small part of their farm, planting pulses, grains and vegetables for both household consumption and sale in the market. Rohini’s farming practices were very successful, leading to her gaining the confidence of both her family and the community. In 2023, Rohini earned an income of over 1.6 Lakhs from her organic farming initiatives.
Not limited to only benefiting her family, Rohini also began to work as a Sakhi in her village. She developed her piece of land as a demonstration plot, using it to teach other farmers best practices in sustainable, organic and climate-smart agriculture. Rohini also carried out a detailed survey of 213 women farmers in her village to understand cropping patterns and water use. On the basis of those findings, which showed a heavy leaning towards cash crops like soybean and intensive water consumption, she started pushing women to venture into diversified food crop farming which required less water and improved household health and nutrition.
Today 16 other farmers have installed vermicompost beds in their farms and over 100 women farmers are implementing the one-acre model on their farms. More recently, Rohini has been promoting the installation of biogas units on farms, with an aim to shift to clean energy sources.
Her future plan is to plant vegetables on 20 hectares of land and enter the market with assistance from the FPO.
Swayam Shikshan Prayog
May 28, 2024