A nursery is an area where new saplings are raised and nourished until they are ready for planting at a permanent place. Raising of seedlings in a nursery is important for various reasons. It is easy to grow and maintain a large number of plants per unit area and can be raised more effectively due to better care and management. When seeds are sown in seedbeds, their germination percentage increases and the vigour of the seedlings also improves. The management of seedlings can be done in a better way with minimum care, cost and maintenance as the nursery area is small. Off-season sowing of seeds becomes possible, which ultimately results in fetching more returns. The seed requirement of nursery-raised crops is less as compared to direct seed sowing of the same crop due to better management. Management of insect pests, diseases and weeds is very easy in a nursery.

Considering their culture and predominant male tradition, rural women are yet to be recognised as farmers in many areas though they possess a great deal of know-how in agriculture practices. Often, they compromise on their food and did not get even three meals in a day since they had to feed their family members and take their food last.

Keeping the above in mind, the Gram Nirman program introduced this noble initiative by establishing a common nursery in five villages in each cluster by mobilising rural women. A total of 2,40,000 (two lakh forty thousand) saplings (papaya and drumstick @1,20,000) have been raised on a pilot basis in 55 villages of 11 districts by mobilising 728 smallholders where 88% (i.e., 637) are women engaged in this noble initiative by taking responsibility to raise a common nursery collectively to set an example for women of other regions. The saplings will be distributed among the entire households of 55 villages by ensuring each household should have these additional species in their nutrition garden to for self-consumption.

The basic idea of initiating this initiative is to bring the rural women together and empower them on their role and responsibility not only in family farming to secure their dietary requirements at the family level but also to play a greater role in participating in community meetings by acknowledging their presence at the decision making level. This initiative has drawn the attention of community members while appreciating the efforts made by these women across Gram Nirman program areas.

Gram Nirman is a program supported by Caritas Australia and Australian Aid, aimed to improve inclusivity, and diversify their livelihood with improved access to education, health, and wellbeing by covering 33,496 marginalised households in the most vulnerable ecosystem of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand state of India.

“I am so glad to be part of the nursery program for the first time ever. It is a recognition for women like me to be involved in such an initiative. For years, though we have been contributing almost 70% of the agricultural work as a farmer, we are least recognised by our counterparts,” said Somari Devi from Kamata.

So, this is a kind of opportunity we got to spread a message in our community that, our contributions are also equally important towards making a healthy community.