The Story of Rukuni and her Family’s Prosperity

Rukuni Majhi of village Barakaudi of Dumerpadar Panchayat in Thuamul.Rampur block of Kalahandi District has a big family of seven to support. She has six acres of land. Till 2015, she along with Hangta (her husband) used to grow only paddy, millets and oil seeds (Niger) in the kharif season to feed the family and earn some money. In spite of owning six acres of land, their family struggled due to low production and meagre income from agriculture. In the year 2016, Rukuni was encouraged to develop an acre of a WADI patch on her land where productivity was low. In this land, they planted twenty cashew and sixteen litchi trees. Along with this they also planted four mango plants.

In the first year apart from tending to the plants they also intercropped other vegetables in the WADI field. Harsha Trust also facilitated an exposure for the farmers to learn intercropping and pest management. This made them further diversify and they started growing vegetables, pulses and fruits for increasing income, reducing risk and improving sustainable livelihood.
In 2017, the family was supported by Harsha Trust to build an irrigation structure. i.e. Ring well and Solar Pump which enabled the family to grow high value crops like broccoli, capsicum and green pea. They also started growing millets and pulses by adopting an improved package of practices and were able to earn an additional income of about Rs.15, 000/- from this intervention.
They purchased better quality seeds from the FPO promoted by Harsha Trust. This year the family earned an additional income of about Rs.20, 000 from vegetables, millet and paddy. They have also started their own cashew plantation in three acres and are selling cashew grafts to other farmers which have given them Rs 5,000 additionally. The family is well off today. Their upland has finally paid off.