With natural farming base, FPO takes off

Bharat Dogra, Tikamgarh (MP)

The Ken-Betwa Women Farmers’ Producer Company in Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh has 2,300 shareholders, mostly women farmers who took to natural farming with assistance from SRIJAN, a voluntary organization. Going natural helped the women save money, produce better crops and conserve soil health. Their next step was food processing and the final plunge was starting their own company.

Their farmer-producer company now sells cold-pressed mustard oil, groundnut oil, desi ghee from the milk of local cows, groundnuts as well as arhar and moong pulses.

“Instead of making a big splash by introducing many products for the market, we decided to focus on fewer products and achieve credibility by maintaining quality standards,” says Kamlesh Kurmi, a marginal farmer who was involved in SRIJAN’s project from the start.

With orders coming in from Delhi and Mumbai, this company is on its way to becoming a successful micro-enterprise. 

The unusual name of the company — after the two rivers, Ken and Betwa — symbolizes that just as it is important to save the two rivers for the prosperity of the region, it is equally important to save rural livelihoods, explains Rakesh Singh, team leader of SRIJAN (Self-Reliant Initiatives through Joint Action) in Tikamgarh.

In 2018, when SRIJAN reached out to marginal women farmers in Pathari village in Jatara block of Tikamgarh district, Saroj Kushwaha responded at once. She subsequently emerged as a key person promoting natural farming in the village.

Kushwaha now manages a natural farming centre which produces non-chemical fertilizers and pest repellants for her own farm and for other farmers in this village who find it difficult to produce these items on their own. They can buy the fertilizers from Kushwaha at a modest price.

Kushwaha also took up SRIJAN’s advice to set up a multi-layered vegetable garden. It enabled her to diversify her produce within the space constraints of her small farm of about four acres.

Kushwaha is only one of several hundred women in Tikamgarh district who have made important gains with natural farming with SRIJAN’s guidance and help, reducing farming expenses while producing more diverse produce of better quality.

“Apart from lowering the costs of farming, the food we produce with natural methods keeps our families healthy and we save a lot by not having to go repeatedly to doctors,” says Guddi Ahirwar, a Dalit farmer who has been active on a small but very productive farm.

Their success with biodiverse farming opened up opportunities to hike incomes further. They realized they could take their produce to consumers who value healthy food and are willing to pay a small premium for it. However, to realize this objective they first had to build their capacity to run a food processing unit. They also had to be careful about the processing methods they employed so that food was not stripped of its nutrients.

As Rakesh Singh says, exploring various technologies carefully was a gradual process. They had to ensure that the technology they chose maintained food quality and affordability.

“We realized the benefits of small-scale local processing compared to big processing in urban areas. When we extract oil from mustard or groundnut crops locally, then it is possible to make available the residual oilcake for local dairy animals. This is very beneficial for the local rural economy,” Kurmi points out.

In addition to marketing these products, the company is helping a sister organization by marketing their kodo and kutki millets, which are also reputed for having health benefits.

As the company is working on rather low margins, it has tried to raise some income from additional activities like supplying wheat to biscuit manufacturers, but this is not its core activity.

At an early stage the company has already started receiving valuable support from customers. With orders coming in from Mumbai and Delhi, the venture appears to be well on its way to achieving an adequate base of regular buyers of its products.

If the effort succeeds, it can open the door for several other similar ventures. SRIJAN’s efforts to  promote natural farming have already spread to states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, apart from Madhya Pradesh.

These efforts involve promoting multi-layered vegetable gardens and small orchards suitable for farmers with small land holdings. With fast growing crop diversification, other opportunities present themselves like making pickles and jams for urban markets.

Hence, both in terms of new units and greater product diversification of the Ken-Betwa company, there are considerable new opportunities waiting to be tapped.

With growing national discussion and debate around reducing the distress of farmers, what these farmers have been able to achieve can be very useful and inspiring for wider efforts to better the lot of farmers.

As these efforts reduce fossil fuels by giving up chemical fertilizers and pesticides and emphasize planting of many more trees and improving soil, resulting in carbon capture, such farming efforts are good for climate change mitigation. And, since they reduce expenses while promoting diversification, soil and water conservation, these initiatives are good for climate change adaptation too.

Hence, if payments are made to such farmers for their contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation, their livelihoods would be strengthened further.

By adding processing and direct marketing to health-conscious consumers, these efforts can succeed even better, setting an example for others.