Five women farmers who took big risks and found bigger success

Farming is typically associated with the cultivation of fruits, vegetables and grains in geographies suited for them. But there is much more to farming than just continuing on the path taken by others. Farmers stand out from the crowd and earn recognition and money when they take the road less travelled and walk on their own path.

This can involve experimenting with new concepts, innovating farming techniques or implementing new technologies when others are unwilling to take risks.

It is tough to travel off the beaten path because there is often a lack of ready market for products, consumer awareness of new products is low or it simply requires a lot of hard work on all fronts.

Despite the challenges, some enterprising farmers don’t shy away from taking risks because the higher the risk, the higher the returns. Here are five women farmers who took risks and found success:

1. Kavita Mishra, sandalwood farming:

When Kavita Mishra completed her computer engineering and got a job offer from IT giant Infosys in 1998, her in-laws did not allow her to take it up. They wanted her to remain at home.

Not the one to sit idle, she decided to start farming on her husband’s ancestral land of about 8 acres in Kavital in the Raichur district of Karnataka. It was barren land where nothing grew and the temperature exceeded 45 degrees in summer.

In 2008, she attended a three-day training on sandalwood cultivation at the Institute of Wood Science and Technology (IWST), Bengaluru, which made her aware of the commercial value of sandalwood agroforestry. She took the risk of planting sandalwood without any prior examples or proven results. Even today, sandalwood farming has not gained roots in India despite its high profitability.

Now, Kavita’s farm has 2500 trees of sandalwood, which will bring crores of rupees in income by 2027.

A strong believer in integrated and organic farming, the computer engineer also grows fruits and raises cattle and poultry at her farm in Karnataka.

Kavitas' full story: How this engineer turned barren land into organic sandalwood and fruit farm 

2. Rasika Phatak, paddy farming using SRI technique:

In 2013, the Saguna Rice Technique (SRT) was introduced in Neral, Maharashtra. It was developed by Chandrashekhar Bhadsavle, a food scientist who returned to India after working in the United States.

As often happens, most farmers were unwilling to experiment with SRT, which involves growing rice and other crops on raised beds without tilling, puddling, or transplanting. The adoption was very slow.

Rasika Phatak, a 20-year-old girl who was doing her BSc and wanted to help her debt-ridden farmer father, understood the technique and experimented in her small landholding.

She made a record in 2019 by harvesting 35,200 kg paddy from her small landpiece using the no-till, raised bed and direct sowing method of SRT.

Today, she is a successful farmer, consultant and seller of agri inputs. For locals in her area, the consultation is free. Her risk has helped her family see better days and also transformed the lives of hundreds of other farmers.

Here's her story: Rasika Phatak: Maharashtra’s 23-year-old millionaire farmer & agriculture consultant

3. Santosh Devi Khedar, growing apples in Rajasthan at 50 degrees Celsius:

In 2015, when Santosh Devi Khedar planted 100 apple saplings on a part of her 1.25-acre farm in Beri village, Sikar, Rajasthan, she took a big risk. Apples grow the best in cool climates, with Jammu and Kashmir known as the Apple King of India. In contrast, the maximum temperature during the summer months of April to June can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius in Sikar, part of the Thar Desert.

Apples are not native to Rajasthan but those grown by her are a special variety that thrives in high temperatures. It is the HRMNN 99 variety. Today, Santosh has 100 apple trees in her fruit farm. With organic farming, each tree yields 80 kg of apples annually. She also has a flourishing nursery business, which adds Rs25 lakh to the annual farm turnover of Rs38 lakh from just 1.25 acres.

Here's her journey: Rajasthan’s woman farmer grows organic apples at 50 degrees Celsius; gets Rs 38 lakh turnover from just 1.25 acres

4. Reeva Sood, medicinal plant farming on barren land:

When Reeva Sood bought barren land spread over three villages of Gunghrala, Akrot and Behar Bithal in Behar Jaswan panchayat in Una, people wondered about her investment decision at the age of 55. They mocked her for buying uneven and dry land, called ‘khud’ or good-for-nothing land in the local language.

But Reeva saw the local vegetation and realised that the land could be used to grow medicinal plants after making it cultivable.

Today, at 65, she grows medicinal and aromatic plants, and dragon fruit on that land, earning Rs50 lakh annually. 

She is also a role model for thousands of farmers, who are now tying up with her to sell their produce.

Also Read: 65-year-old woman turns barren land into organic farm of medicinal plants, earns Rs50 lakh annually

5. Roja Reddy, an engineer who converted her family land from a chemical to an organic farm

In 2018, Roja Reddy was working in Bengaluru with technology giant IBM. That summer, on a trip home to Donnehalli village in Karnataka, Roja learnt that her father and brother, fed up with heavy losses in agriculture, were planning to sell the farm.

Roja quit her well-paying job and took up the challenge of reviving the family farm. When Roja decided to take up organic farming, she was dissuaded and ridiculed. Her father and brother strongly opposed her decision and villagers laughed at her. Within three years, a determined Roja began earning crores of rupees from the farmland. She is the pioneer of organic farming in her village and others come to her for consultation and help.

(US Anu is a Madurai-based writer. She specialises in stories around human interest, environment and art and culture.)

Also Read: Seven exotic fruit farmers running super profitable farms

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