Women take up innovative farm practice
Project started in Odisha to be extended to 32 gram panchayats soon Tech where fodder is grown in farm & their waste products used as manure
Women members of several self-help groups (SHGs) in Boriguma block of Odisha’s Koraput have started novel agriculture practices under the Integrated Multiple Farming (IMF) system in the unused government lands.
IMF comprises cultivation of vegetables, flowers, mushroom and allied activities like animal husbandry, poultry and fish farming at one place. This is an interlinked technique where fodder for animals is grown in the farm and their waste products are used as manure and fertilizers for crops.
According to local Block Development officer (BDO) Pranaya Kumar Behera, the district administration under the guidance of the collector has acquired 18 acres of barren land at Bhatigam village under Kamara panchayat in Koraput district for the purpose and engaged women members of the SHGs in the farming activities. Apart from flowers, vegetables and fish farming, the SHG women members also planted coconut, banana and other trees in the land.
“In the first phase, we have started a pilot project at Bhatigam village and it will be replicated in 31 more gram panchayats. Women SHG members were engaged in developing the land and paid as provided by the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The pilot project was started four months ago. The first sum of money has recently come from floriculture and it has been placed with the local gram panchayat. A bylaw is being prepared for transparent administration of revenue earned from the
project. Once the bylaw is ready, the associated women
members will get their share from the earned revenue,”
said Mr Behera. Joshada Bishoyi, an SHG member, said, “We have grown varieties of flowers, vegetables and mushrooms. We also rear livestock in the IMF project.”
Another member of the SHG, Ratna Bisoyi said, “Now in the first phase, we have got engaged in the project development work and getting a good payment for our labour. After the land is fully developed and farm activities start, we hope that each member will earn not less than `7,000 to `8000 per month.”
Boriguma block administration, as the BDO informed, is spending around `60 to `70 lakh in each panchayat to develop such farming project.
Satyanarayan Sethi, assistant engineer of Borigumma block, said, “There were huge patches of government land in several panchayats of the block which were either encroached upon by the villagers or left unused. We identified those lands and started the project.”
This initiative of the Borigumma block authorities, first of its kind in the state, will make the tribal woman of the region independent. Such initiatives should be taken up across the state, said a local.