Jaipur: The small and nondescript Jasauti village of Pahari tehsil in Bharatpur district, situated at the Rajasthan- Haryana border, has emerged as the “village of lady’s finger”, sending over a dozen vehicles with the popular vegetable everyday for six months in a year to Gurgaon and Delhi. Eighty per cent of agriculturists in the village are engaged in the farming of lady’s finger. The transformation in both the social and economic status of farmers in the village is the outcome their own hard work accompanied by proper planning and effective guidance with the appropriate interventions by experts. Farmers are getting remunerative prices for lady’s finger in the market. About three years ago, Jasauti village comprising just 150 households was adopted by the Lupin Human Welfare and Research Foundation of Bharatpur with the innovative plans for development. Experts attached to the Lupin HW&R Foundation advised the farmers in the village to go for horticulture or farming of vegetables in view of availability of water and productive soil. On their suggestion, five farmers experimented with lady’s finger, which has now been adopted by almost the entire village. The Lupin HW&R Foundation has this year made available lady’s finger seeds of improved variety on subsidy and provided guidance from time to time. Eighty per cent of farmers in Jasauti have left the rabi farming and instead grow lady’s finger, getting the produce by March-end. The popular vegetable, consumed in cities in a huge quantity, easily fetches Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 4,000 per quintal to the farmers. With the onset of summer, lady’s finger starts arriving in the mandis from other regions as well and its price drops considerably. By then, each farmer in Jasauti earns Rs. 2 lakhs to Rs. 3 lakhs.
A farmer, Tota Ram, says he has got lady’s finger production one-and-a-half to two times higher this year as a result of assistance provided by Lupin HW&R Foundation. Another farmer, Dharam Singh, has started sending his children to good schools after improvement in his financial condition. He also grows other vegetables and fruits of the summer season to augment his income. According to farmer Shankar Singh, lady’s finger farming has helped him in getting rid of poverty and enabled him to purchase vehicles. He takes his produce to the towns as far as Faridabad, Meerut and Hardwar for selling, increasing his income many times more than his counterparts.
The Lupin HW&R Foundation’s Executive Director, Mr. Sita Ram Gupta, said here today that the farmers helped out through subsidy and guidance included 28 belonging to Below Poverty Line (BPL). Most of them are set to break the shackles of poverty. Several traders come to Jasauti regularly to purchase lady’s fingers, while many farmers sell the vegetable on Pahari-Kathaul road. Mr. Gupta pointed out that the Lupin HW&R Foundation had recently established five women’s self-help groups in Jasauti and launched training programmes in food processing and other avocations for them. Men and women in the village can be seen in the village’s agricultural fields plucking lady’s fingers throughout the day and collecting them in sacks for being transported outside.
Agriculturists in the nearby villages have also started taking interest in the farming of lady’s finger after witnessing the success of the innovative work in Jasauti. The Lupin HW&R Foundation has obtained loans on easy terms for farmers from Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for purchasing the seeds of good variety and is providing guidance to them to make the best use of the vegetable’s production.
-Kalyan Singh Kothari, Media Consultant, Mobile: 9414047744