Empower Women Farmers in India

Dal mill- the two words which don’t quite depict it as a corporate enterprise, nevertheless this entity has been providing fair livelihood opportunities to more than 5000 farming families in rural Rajasthan and has become a symbol of identity for them. The farmers of Kotra have not only received fair price for the pulses they produced since past seven years, but now also take pride in the fact that their pulses are being recognized as of supreme quality in some of the best hotels and restaurants of Udaipur.

In the previous edition we discussed plans about NalaBachatSamiti’s expansion of scale in terms of procurement and production. Those plans have taken shape and for the first time NalaBachatSamiti has procured raw moong (type of lentil) from the farmers of Kherwara, a tribal block, about 100 Kms from Udaipur. As with the farmers of Kotra, the farmers of Kherwara were also subject to middlemen exploitation. The border of Gujarat, being very close to Kherwara, farmers often had to do distress selling of their agricultural produce.

This year NalaBachatSamiti has purchased almost 1500 Kgs of raw moong from Kherwara. This quantity was the collection from 20 farmers of Pareda village of Kherwara. For the first time in their life, the farmers received full “market price” for their agricultural produce without bearing any cost for transportation. The farmers were so elated about the proposal of purchasing raw pulses directly from them that they willingly sorted and graded the raw pulses into two varieties- the superior larger grains and the inferior smaller ones and were ready to accept lower price for the inferior variety. The farmers promised that they will employ better farming practices next time and will try to grow only the superior variety of pulses. They have already started preparation for cultivation of other varieties of pulses namely Tur and Urad, crops which were not generally in agricultural practice in the area. In the words of Manna, a farmer from Pared village, “We never imagined we shall get full price of our agricultural produce. We are thankful to the dal mill and shall help in every way we can to take it to new heights.”

Thank you Friends for your help and support to this program.

Regards

Atul Lekhra 

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