Rising from the darkness like a Phoenix - A story of a young farmer

Rising from the darkness like a Phoenix - A story of a young farmer

Shri. Rajendra Kisan Khalase is a young Marginal Farmer from village Karhol in Aurangabad District. His annual income was around Rs. 35,000/-, which was hardly enough to manage his family expenses as well as education of the children. There was a severe drought in the entire region from 2011 to 2015. In the year 2015, all the wells in the village had dried and people had to go more than two km. to fetch drinking water. Economic condition of most people in the village had become precarious because of crop failures in the four consecutive years of drought.

Rajendra decided to join in one of the local Industries. He was offered a salary of Rs. 6000/- per month. Half of his salary had to be spent on travelling and it was getting difficult for him to manage expenses of his family. He suffered from backache due to daily commute. He had to borrow money from his friends and relatives for his treatment. He was not able to repay money borrowed because of low income.

In March 2016, AFARM with the financial assistance of Bajaj Auto Ltd., undertook the work of ‘Nala’ deepening in the submergence of Cement Check Dam. AFARM had involved a local organization - SEWA for the work. The farm of Rajendra is located along the ‘Nala’ deepening work.  In June 2016 with first rains, check dam was filled with rain water. All dug wells and tube well in the influence area of check dam were recharged with water including well in the farm of Rajendra. The village which was dependant on the tanker for the last 4-5 years became tanker-free in the first rains of 2016.

In the Kharif season, Rajendra cultivated improved fodder on his farm.  The production of fodder was good. He approached Mahanand Milk Federation for a loan to purchase a cow, which he was sanctioned. His cow was giving him 20 liters of milk per day. He started earning Rs. 500/- per day from the sale of milk and he could repay money which he had borrowed earlier for his treatment. From the sale of milk, he was also able to repay the loan of Milk Federation. The federation again sanctioned him a loan to purchase another cow. Now he has two cows from which he earns Rs. 1000/- per day from the sale of milk.

In the last Kharif season, Rajendra has cultivated irrigated cotton on 2 heactre of land and could get 30 quintals of cotton. He was able to earn Rs. 1.20 lakhs from the sale of cotton. Now he has enrolled his children in the English medium school and started the construction of house.

Rajendra says, “AFARM-Bajaj Foundation partnership is instrumental in transforming my life. During the summer season, the well in my farm has 20 feet water level. Now, drinking water issue in my village is completely resolved. Earlier people from my village were migrating in search of work. Now people have stopped migrating and are engaged on their farms.” He further added with the sense of satisfaction on his face that now every day around 2500 liters of milk is being sold to Mahanand Dairy from his village.  He concluded by stating that he has a dream of developing an orchard on his farm, which seems now possible due to water availability. He expressed his deep gratitude to AFARM-Bajaj Foundation partnership for the turnaround in his personal life as well as for resolving the water crisis in his village.

Roof top rain water harvesting is the answer of water woes

Khadki is a village of Karamala block that is located on the upper side of the Sina River basin. In Jan. 2016 village Khadki was included under the AWO Sponsored Special Initiative (SI) for Poverty Reduction and Food Security for Poor and Vulnerable Communities. Like other villages in Karmala Block, Khadki also has less, erratic and uncertain rainfall and did not have adequate water harvesting structures to store whatever rain it received.

As a result most of the villagers’ practice rain fed farming which is vulnerable to climate changes, producing low yields, making them food insecure. The situation forces them to migrate at distant locations for their daily wage earnings. Due to depletion of ground water the village population suffered acute drinking water scarcity and was dependent on tanker supply.  All the ground water sources including the hand pump in the school premises  dried up early in the year. To harvest water during the months of the rainy season and to improve ground water levels in the parched period, AFARM came up with a model of roof top water as a special initiative or pilot case. The Zila        Parishad,  Primary School premises from village Khaki was selected to demonstrate recharging of hand pumps through roof top water harvesting

The school management and ‘Upjivika Vikas Samittee were not open to implement this idea in the beginning but were eventually convinced. Then the mechanism for roof top water harvesting and collection was erected   over the entire school building spanning  an area of about 3000 sq.feet. The collected rain water was passed through a suitable low cost filtering medium and put up near the hand pump for ground water recharging. 

The roof top water harvesting structure started functioning and around 106335 liters of water were harvested and recharged during the rainy season.  As a result ground water level in the hand pump has increased supplying water to 55 school students and surrounding 20 households throughout the year. As a result of water recharge, one more bore well in the school premises was recharged. The teachers realized the importance and were convinced of the concept of rain water harvesting structures after seeing the reality. Latter, the school management installed a 1.5 HP motor on the recharged bore well for water lifting and constructed water storage tank.  The School started using the stored water for the toilet and cleanliness of the school.

Goats mended her life…

Asha Pendur with her goats

Asha Pendur got married and went to Kalamb. She had dreams in her eyes to savour life with her life partner. Time started moving where adversities followed her. Due to domestic problems her in-laws compelled her along with their family to leave the house.  They thought that it was better to leave house and go rather than be obliged and lose self-respect.

She came back to her parents in Shivara. Her old parents received them with compassion and offered them a place to stay. At that time they did not have a single penny to purchase asset or land. Her husband started going for odd jobs. They saved some money and took some money from IRDP as loan to purchase goats. 

It was a hard time for her to meet both the ends meet. She became dependent on her parents who never complaint. Her parents had 4 extra mouths to feed. Her parents mortgaged farm partially. Now Goatry brought some relief to the family. She again took loan and bought goat. 
  

Now she started doing well. She was in a position to contribute to domestic expenses. Gradually she started accumulating money bit by bit. In the meantime she lost her parents. She secured back her mortgaged farm. She also bought new land. Her total holding was 4 ½ acre. 

She became member of SHG named Laxmi and saved Rs.50/month. Her husband became member of SVM. She took subsidy of Rs.1400 from SVM’s revolving fund in 2010 and added Rs.1000 from her petty cash. She bought another goat. Today that goat has 2 kids. She earns Rs. 2500/ kid every 6 months. The cost of he-goat is Rs.4000 each. She-goats are kept and he-goat is sold to butcher. This season she earned Rs.9500/ in span of 6 months from these goats.

She cultivates cotton, jowar, redgram, moong and soyabean in her farm. But hers is un-irrigated rain fed farm. She earns a very little profit which is sufficient only for meeting daily needs of the family. Now her children are growing. Her daughter cleared the entrance exam of nursing and money was required to pay her fees. It was her goatry business which helped in paying her daughter’s fees. 

Her son would clear his HSC exams this year. She would definitely be in a position to pay his fees too. She is very hopeful about this business. While sharing her views she said,”we were happy to be shortlisted as the beneficiaries of this project. The major benefit was agricultural help that we got from SVM. It taught us organic farming. Till now we were in to chemical farming only. Due to training and sheti shala (Livelihood literacy class) our farming concept is totally changed and we applied LIESA technique which reduces is less cost intensive and profit was more. We availed the subsidy for purchasing goat and it helped me in paying my daughter’s fees. My children’s’ education will now be possible without taking loan. In fact, after 2010 we have not availed loan on agriculture from private money lender either. This project has made me self sufficient. Life is always been a challenge to me. Today I have become triumphant.”

(A Case Study of Asha Pendur, Village : Shivara, Organization: ISER)