Moving out of poverty: Agriculture interventions made by a tribal woman

Pramila Manika, a women small millet grower lives at Sanatema village of Hatguda Gram Panchayat, Koraput District of Odisha. The village is situated around 50 km away from the district headquarter. It is around two kilometres away from the NH-26. Pramila Manika lives with her husband Sriman Kameswar Manika, father-in-law, two sons and two daughters. Her eldest daughter got married in last year. Son is reading in class eighth whereas another son is having mentally disability. The younger daughter is studying at standard fifth.

The family the situation was ever worst at her in-law’s house during marriage time. Her husband was unable to migrate (as usually, other villagers migrate) as he was the only son of the family. Again, they had a total of four acres of land but it was on leased due to the pathetic condition of the family. After marriage, Pramila wanted to increase income in the family and involved her husband in agriculture work. Even, they didn’t have a square meal for a day. She was unable to avail good education to her children.

Her situation changed once she joined in Maa Gangeswari Kalanjiam in 2006. She became a secretary in her group. They started monthly saving with Rs. 20 per month. She released her two acres of leased land and started cultivating vegetables like cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, etc. She took loan her first loan of Rs. 1100/- from the group and invested in cultivating vegetables. She could able to sell vegetables in Rs. 12000/-. She took her second loan of Rs.10, 000/- was for unleasing her other two acres land which was leased in Rs. 6, 000/- earlier. She unleashed her other two acres land for cultivation purposes. But, the land was barren land without much production as it was sloppy land. The land didn’t have soil and water retention capability and hence had low production. She was always thinking to make it fertile land so that she could earn more. She had 1.5 acre of upland where she was not able to cultivate crops. The land was covered with small stones as well as eroded soil. She improved the land through the construction of earthen bund with the amount Rs.4500/- as well as made a compost pit near her cattle shed in 2013 with the support from RESMISA project. Now, she is cultivating millets (finger millet, little millet) as well as zinger, tomato. Cabbage, peas, potato, chilli, and yam as a border crop. Last year, they earned around 1.2 lakh rupees. However, she took half-acre of leased land for paddy cultivation in Rs.26, 000/- and half-acre of upland in Rs.15000/- for zinger crop. She also purchased a motor pump to avail protective irrigation with the sum of Rs. 20,000/- this year. Moreover, she was being involved in many of the training programme in small millet consumption and creating awareness level among the villagers. However, she took her third loan of Rs.20, 000/- for construction of a house.

Pramila is leading all the promotional activities in the group and motivated other women in her village and formed two Kalanjiam groups. She is very active in the group and participates all types of meetings, training and exposure visit programme. She has a personal saving of Rs. 11,855 in the group. For any types of development interventions, she comes forward and also involves others. By looking at her hard work and development, there is the enhancement of her social status in the village. She is able to make the decision for the family. She guided her husband to adopt many improved packages of practices in agriculture.  She has shown the right way of agriculture among the villagers through her experiences, gained from various training and capacity building programme of the organization. She is able to provide food and nutrition security for her family whole around the year.

Pramila Manika has shown the way to achieve many things for her family and herself. She had been working hard as well as involving her husband to uplift her family status. She had planned to get better knowledge on agriculture interventions, especially on small millet cultivation as well as adopt better technology in her field to enhance production. Moreover, she wants to avail a good education to her children and decorate her house with lots of household assets.

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