Chapter 4 of Marcellus’ bestselling book, Behold the Leviathan: The Unusual Rise of Modern India : Mukherjea, Saurabh, Rajhansa, Nandita: Amazon.in: Books , discusses the rise of Indian women, why they are increasingly better educated than men and increasingly wealthier than Indian men. This article in the Statesman highlights how women farmers are transforming agriculture in a way that men couldn’t. Ashok Chaterjee’s article focuses on the work done by two organisations run by women in West Bengal. The first is Aamon Mahila Chasi Producer Company, a farmer producer company (called Aamon FPC) and the second is Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN).
Mr Chatterjee takes us to the district of Jhargram in Bengal: “The model of organic farming with higher yields of indigenous varieties of rice and better marketability in the Nayagram block in the Jhargram district, some 200 kilometres from Kolkata, has now inspired its adjacent block, Gopiballavpur-1, to do the same.
Geeta, one of the farmers and purchasing officers for Aamon FPC, said she had to fight for her rights to grow indigenous varieties of rice. But the movement has also given women like her a voice and an opportunity to be on their own.”
Mr Chatterjee then gives us a sense of the massive scale at which Geeta operates in her village and how influential that has been for other women: ““Pradan representatives held a meeting with us, after which we formed a group of 10 women. Before this, we had never moved out and remained confined to our homes. Initially, most of the women of the group were hesitant to come out,” said Geeta.
Post 2017, after the Aamon movement started, she could see her life changing. That gave her confidence and to the other women who were reluctant to come out.
Some of the women from the group, who were confident and were better speakers, started working for this. “We had to take permission from our elders at home. Pradan members helped us a lot. In my house, my brother and I till our land. Under me, there are around 250 farmers and sharecroppers from different GPs (gram panchayats). There are many women who are very poor and usually go to the forests to collect kendu leaves. We provided small lands and told them that they can grow turmeric, which is not labour intensive,” said Geeta.
The women now grow different types of rice, nuts, etc., followed by groundnuts and then potatoes, bitter gourd, etc. The rest of the time they grow cucumbers, pumpkins, chillies, etc…
Since 30 per cent of the area is covered by Sal forest, many women, who do not own land, are now preparing Sal leaf plates and selling them to South and West India. They are also growing cashews here. They are now getting a good price for cashews.”
After we have learnt how successful Geeta, Aamon FPC and PRADAN has been in transforming lives, Mr Chatterjee takes us back in time to 2017 where a new variety of rise from Kerela was the catalyst which ignited the rise of women farmers:
“PRADAN) members provided the women of Nayagram block with the Kerala Sundari variety of rice.
“To grow them, we had to fight with our family members. They told us that we would spoil their land if we grew these indigenous varieties of rice. They would not allow us. We finally managed to extract the permission to grow 250 grammes of Kerala Sundari rice. We were asked to keep money as mortgage before we sowed the rice variety. We were even warned that if the rice did not grow in the land and if the farm was damaged, we would not be served food and not allowed to stay at home,” recalls Geeta of her struggle in 2017.
But with the passage of years, the crop yield increased, which led them to find a place where they could sell the excess yield. They formed a cooperative to collectively sell the crop.
“Earlier, we used to spend around Rs 5,000 on manure, but now we spend less than Rs 500 on manure, as most of it is organic, and we make it at home, such as neem leaves paste and cow dung.
All of us are happy that we could earn so much from our land. It is an achievement for us. Now others come to us for help. We are their guides,” said another member of Aamon.
PRADAN has been working in Bengal for 14 years. They started with the basic needs of consumption and the motto of ‘eat better.’.
Aniruddha Mukherjee, team coordinator of the Kharika Mathani team, PRADAN, said, “When we went to the villages and had discussions with the community, they complained that the food cost is very high, the pest attacks drain them, and that leaves nothing as yield. So, our first step was to make them food-sufficient. Going organic is a challenge. We had to factor in the high-yield variety, hybrid variety, the F1 variety, etc. We were going against the norms.”…
Kala bhat (black rice) was the first experiment. It has a good market, surveys revealed. PRADAN has been helping them with their expertise in both production and marketing.
In the past, the shops selling fertilisers prevented the villagers. When we moved in, we took into confidence the panchayat members. We asked them to try this first as they are elected representatives. Their good show motivated others, said Aniruddha.
Aamon FPC (farmer producer company): More than 5,000 people are growing the indigenous paddy at Nayagram block, and almost 3,000 women are in the FPC.
“Last year, Aamon FPC did more than Rs 3 crore of turnover with mostly aromatic black rice paddy and brown rice paddy. The agriculture department is very much interested in our work. The central scheme, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, has also included us in their scheme. Now these landowners are also getting organic certification of their lands. This is an achievement,” said Aniruddha.
Setting the success of Nayagram block, now Gopiballavpur-1 block has also invited Pradan. This model of higher consumption and higher marketing is also attractive for the stakeholders, said Aniruddha.
The government officials and other important guests who come to Nayagram are given this black rice. What is remarkable is that all this is done by women. These women are now being recognised at block and district-level meetings.”
It is fascinating to see that whilst India’s urban middle class spends its time venting on social media, in rural India’s farms a revolution is taking place – both financially in terms of crop yields and socially in terms of the rise of women leaders. To our mind, this exemplifies the unusual rise of modern India.
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