Empowered grassroots women leaders are taking small steps in resilience building in Wayanad district
“While addressing the food security, we are also making sure the proper utilization of barren land and multiplication of indigenous seeds”, says Molly Haridas, an indigenous farmer from Marayal village.
Vulnerable communities in Wayanad who faced recurrent floods & landslides since 2018 are showing leadership skills in tackling COVID-19 crisis & food security. SSP facilitated Sakhi Farmers have joined the Subiksha Keralam program (an initiative of Government of Kerala to address the food security). The groups accessed the Community Resilience Fund (CRF) to start the cultivation & identified uncultivated land in Kottathara & took 29 acres of land on lease.
In partnership with Kottathara GP, 52 Sakhi Farmers accessed MNREGA programmed for land preparation and cleaning for farming. The Sakhi Farmers have started the cultivation of indigenous rice varieties of Gandhakasala and Jeerakasala and Uma to address food availability in COVID time.
Sakhi Farmers are ensuring indigenous rice for their own consumption which has high value of nutrition and sells the surplus to the market. They are planning to multiply the seeds after the harvest to expand the cultivation into more areas. Sakhi Farmers group in Myladi made arrangements to buy the rice and convert it to value added products for the larger market.