By Deepti Ameta | Program In charge of Resource Mobilization
Dear Friends,
Hope you are well. Half of our monsoon period is over and we have not received any rains. It is a worrisome situation for us. A large number of people in villages were we work, are dependent on agriculture. If it doesn’t rain, the food security for these families will be affected. Therefore, we are hoping that the monsoon may come in its second half and we will receive adequate rainwater in our lakes and wells. We will keep you updated on it.
With your support, many villages are food secure. For example: Rajpur village. It is a small village in the hilly area of Gurra Panchayat, of Kotra block. The village consists of 132 families spread out among 4 hamlets. In this area, families depend on rain-fed agriculture as their source of both livelihood and sustenance. The majority of these families have only a single crop for subsistence farming. Availability of water for irrigation is a large issue in the area.
In 2001, the drought year, Seva Mandir assisted in constructing 7 wells in different villages. One of these wells supports 17 farmers in their different cropping patterns. These farmers are encouraged and trained to sow green gram to meet both their dietary needs and possibly increasing their income.
This year these 17 farmers sowed 68kg of green gram (moong) and were able to harvest 1,235kg. As per the rules of the seed bank, cultivators have returned the minimum of 1.5 times the seed given to them. Thus, out of the 1,235 kg of green gram cultivated, 115 kg of seeds was returned to the bank. The market price of green gram this year is approximately Rs. 40/- (less than USD 1) which amounts to a profit of Rs. 44,880 (USD 808) for the farmers.
Green gram is the third crop of this year and has provided a surplus to the family income. In addition to surplus, it has increased the nutrient intake of the families, especially women and children, to improve their overall diet.
We are excited to share with you such progress we make in this region with your support. Thank you again, for your continuing support to us. We hope to meet with you some day and show you some of our work in villages.
Thanks and regards,
Deepti
By Deepti Ameta | Program In charge of Resource Mobilization
By Deepti Ameta | Program In charge of Resource Mobilization
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