Khunta: As many as 70 women from ten self-help groups (SHG) have scripted a success story by cultivating vegetables at Chapaldihi village under Badapathara panchayat in Khunta block of Mayurbhanj district.
These women have now become famous as women farmers not only in the locality but also in the entire district.
Mayurbhanj collector Vinit Bhardwaj recently visited the vegetable farmland of these women and heaped praise on them for setting an example for others.
“We have now realised that it is only our confidence that has taken us thus far. We put in hard labour and the result is there before everyone to see,” a member of the SHG said.
Udala ITDA had supplied vegetable seeds and fertilisers to these ten SHGs under Agriculture Production Cluster Scheme. As many as 70 women prepared a total of 37 acres of land and sowed the seeds. Now, they grow crops such as eggplants, ridge gourds, bitter gourds and corns.
The women said they started harvesting only from the first week of this month and have so far sold off 57 quintals of vegetables and corns which has fetched them a return of over Rs 2 lakh.
The women are selling their produces at a local procurement centre being run by ORMAS in Baripada.
When asked about the issues they face in growing crops, the women said that water scarcity continues to remain a major challenge. They have already brought the issue before the collector and have requested him to get a deep well dug up for them to which collector Bhardwaj has agreed, they said.
PNN