Rega Soy could not pursue his education due to great poverty and turn to cattle-based agriculture as a source of survival. The resident of Regadih village in Saraikela – Kharsawan district of Jharkhand was facing difficulty in securing his food and was solely dependent on the predominant rainfed paddy.  The situation became further difficult after his marriage to maintain and had to search for additional work to secure the daily food requirements of his family.

In one of the community level orientations, Rega was identified by the Gram Nirman team members, where he could barely interact with the team. However, he was encouraged to participate in community meetings and other crop-based orientation programs. Supported by Caritas Australia and DFAT, the program focuses on promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, providing access to justice for all, build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Over the years, Rega took many initiatives and was elected as the President in one of the Farmers clubs formed in his village. Motivating farmers (inclusive of women farmers) to take part in community-based orientation was one of his key initiative which gave him good recognition and acknowledgement in society. Rega and his fellow farmers had undergone many such community-level on-farm trainings and orientation on a system of rice intensification, preparation of bio-manure, bio-pest repellents, cropping practices, diversification with suitable crops and other farm components to make their small farm more resilient to cope up with climate shocks and threats.

Gradually under the leadership of Rega, challenges related to food production like water crisis, conservation of available natural resources, maintaining soil health, crop diversifications, diversification of farm components, access to farm inputs and provisions were brought into the Gram Sabha meeting and a 3years realistic plan made under village development plan to ensure increase in farm production and thereby food security in general in the context of climate change.

“If I look back, I had nothing to invest but with the help of accompaniment support through Gram Nirman, I made my way out and successfully diversified my small farms with at least 4 components (i.e., 3-4 types of field crops, 6-8 types of vegetables, 3-4 types of fruit plants, and cow),” says Rega delightedly.

By diversifying his small farm, he could get Rs. 60,000/- to Rs 70,000/- (INR) each year since 2019 whereas, an additional Rs. 20,000/- to Rs 30,000/- per season by cultivating pointed gourd. It was Rega who introduced the pointed gourd cultivation in his village and since the crop was new to them, he could not only sell on a decent price in the local market it but also share seeds with other farmers to cultivate and take benefit out of it.

Apart from this, under the leadership of Rega, two community ponds and one irrigation canal were constructed under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guaranty Act (MGNREGA) through block development office in the year 2018 and 2019 respectively while covering almost 50 acres of land with assured irrigation.

 “For me, Gram Nirman is a platform for smallholders like us to build our traditional knowledge and wisdom to find the most appropriate localised solutions. Thank you for animating us for our own resilience.” says Rega