The women of village Jhodiyabadam are changing the picture of their lives by planting tomatoes and chillies

Agriculture has now become profitable in agriculture-dominated Chhattisgarh. The state government has run various schemes in the last year by giving priority to the agriculture sector and its direct impact is reflected on the ground of reality today. With many changes in traditional farming, now the people of the state are doing farming commercially with modern and advanced technology. Farmers are getting direct benefit of this. Chhattisgarh state, which is mainly famous for paddy cultivation, is now becoming a stronghold of vegetable cultivation as well. Vegetable cultivation in the state has now spread from the plains to the mountains. Especially the villagers of the forest areas are also getting involved in the cultivation of vegetables. Vegetable cultivation has currently turned into a very profitable farming. Not only this, the initiative of involving women of self-help groups in vegetable cultivation has also brought many changes in the agriculture sector. If it is seen from the perspective of benefits, large groups of women are getting employment from home as well as economic income has increased, apart from this, non-traditional agriculture got encouragement. In this sequence, Mrs. Pila Bai Sethiya and Mrs. Maleswari Sethiya of Jai Maa Danteshwari Self Help Group (Bihan) of Gram Panchayat- Jhodiyabadam (Kallar Para) of the district have also given a new direction to their agriculture work by joining the group. These didis, like other rural women, were also dependent on traditional farming. It is clear that their income from this was also limited. Then they decided to increase their income and do something new in farming by joining the Bihan scheme and getting bank linkage done.

First of all, they adopted improved varieties of tomatoes and chillies which were more productive and resistant to pests. Then through drip irrigation technology, they adopted the method of saving water and giving the right amount of water to the plants, this not only increased production but also made proper use of water. Apart from this, Mrs. Pilabai and Mrs. Maleswari Sethia also paid attention to organic farming and they started using organic manure instead of chemical fertilizers, due to which the quality of their crop improved and the demand for the tomatoes grown by them increased in the market.

Along with this, they also controlled weeds by maintaining the moisture of the soil in tomato and chilli beds by adopting the “mulching technique” (use of plastic cover). This helped in maintaining the fertility of the land and their tomato and chilli crop got additional benefits. Inspired by the agricultural initiative of these women, other didis of the group are also cultivating vegetables on a small scale. However, these didis have achieved the status of a progressive woman farmer by finding a source of additional income for themselves in vegetable farming.