Rural Women perceive New Business opportunities during COVID-19 pandemic
Vegetable consumption has increased in recent months due to COVID19, abundance growth has also led to new employment & income generating business opportunities. Since then, women of Gaur village, Osmanabad entered the value chain market with confidence. Women farmers face many challenges such as lack of information about the markets, appropriate access to finance, lack of technical knowledge & the unavailability of transport facilities at the peak of pandemic only made it worse.
SSP with the support of The European Union has been supporting women in sustainable practices & increasing the vegetable production value chain by acquiring knowledge & skills. 15 women farmers, equipped with 25+ acres were trained in basic entrepreneurship and organic farming skills through which they have grown more than 10 varieties of vegetables.
They held regular training and meetings to impart the knowledge on outside markets and price distribution. In recent meetings, the women farmers decided to procure 2700 kg of fruit-vegetables. On 01st December, 2020, they took the giant leap of sending their produce to the Agriculture Produce Wholesale Markets of Washi, Nashik and Mumbai cities.