Everyone has a story to tell, but very few of them manage to move us emotionally, inspire us, or motivate us to work a little more. Laxmi Bai is one among those women who have transformed not only her own life but also of those around her. Like many other women in her village in Raipur, Shahpur Block of Betul district, she had joined a self-help group with an aim to start saving her income.
Laxmi Bai was full of self-doubt even when she was chosen and trained by Santoshi Self Help Group as a Krishi Sakhi with the aid of PRADHAN.
However, with the support from her family, she mustered the courage to work for the well-being of her community. She initially encountered many difficulties, including rejection and slander because she was one of the first women to leave the hamlet in order to find employment and bring forth change in their society. Her goal was to change agriculture and, in turn, increase her fellow farmers' income. Laxmi Bai along with other women realized that the farmers needed a collective, an institution owned "By the farmers, Of the farmers, and for the farmers". This was required, as the shops were interested in only making profits.
Being a leader of the farming group of the Chirayu Women Crop Producer Company and one of the lead women farmers in the area, she feels a sense of pride and aims to move ahead. As she says “We have created a business with a heart as most of the retailers are profit-oriented. We strive to help the farmers by giving the essentials for farming at credit and the farmers return the amount once they sell their yield.
Moreover, in Chirayu, we don’t give all the unnecessary chemicals for one disease or deficiency rather we give products according to the need. It was not an easy start when we started Chirayu. We rented land and there was not enough space for the meetings but with the help of Corteva Agri Science funding we built a space for our community. “Corteva has played an important role in seed replacement in our area. Earlier we used desi seeds which used to give us 2 quintals from one acre. But now with Corteva’s improved seeds, we have started gaining 18-20 quintals per acre. However, it was not an easy change, the farmers were not ready to adopt the seeds but with the help of apt training and demonstration of the yield from my own land they agreed”.
Six years later, Laxmi Bai has made life-changing development in the lives of many women farmers of Shahpur Block. She firmly believes that “when your heart and mind want something to do for the society you will always know without a doubt that you are headed in the right direction.” From being a change vector to being a woman of substance by creating her place in her home and society she has proved to be an Iron lady.
Along with her fellow women at Chirayu she is planning to bring in value addition to the produces that they make so that the farmers could gain more profit. Laxmi Bai and other women of Chirayu are determined to make this dream a reality.
