Nicely packed ginger, turmeric and sticky rice powder are now easily available with farmers.  These newly packed organic produces are now doubling their income without much hassle.

Urua Farmers Club from Uruabari village in West Tripura District of Tripura is one of the lead Farmer’s Clubs under the Caritas India FARM NE-III Programme. The members have been doing several collective activities such as Maize and Paddy cultivation and other vegetable cultivations for the past 6 years. Though they used to put all their hard work, they could hardly get the real value because finished produce gets more income than raw products. The farmers used to struggle to take their produce to the towns to grind and process in order can get a little better income in the market.

The FARM NE team of Jan Unnayan Samiti Tripura (JUST), a partner of Caritas India did the need assessment during Covid-19 pandemic with the farmers to support their livelihood and increase their income. It was informed that people used to rush to the towns or depend on the traditional method of grinding their organic products. This was not only time-consuming but also expensive.

After consulting with the groups, Caritas India under the FARM NE-II programme provided them with a grinding machine (Multi-purpose) for their better income.

The grinding machine provided to the farmers has now been used extensively by the whole area of people covering most of the FARM programme villages. People now do not need to go for grinding their products in the towns or far flung areas. Now it saves time, money and energy which can be used for other productive work. The organic products such as turmeric, ginger, sticky rice, etc are consumed more by the people and the demand for their locally made spices also increased.

“I used to go for grinding my turmeric to Sidhai Mohanpur town in which I used to spend at least Rs. 100/- just to go and grind 3 kilos of turmeric which was a waste of time, energy and money,” says Budhi Debbarma, a farmer from Kolaghat village. I was even discouraged to cultivate turmeric anymore but now after grinding machine is available near to my village and which is a walkable distance I feel encouraged to cultivate more and more and I can sell organic turmeric powder in the local market as it has more demands in the market.

The president of the group, Sukuram Debbarma is entrusted to take care of the grinding machine and the income generated from the grinding machine is deposited in the group account which can be utilized for the welfare of the group such as, IGA purpose, Inter-loaning, etc. The FARM NE team regularly follows-up with the group to ensure that the machine is being utilized and the income is generated. So far, the group has earned Rs. 26,000/- approximately and 30% of the profit which is given to the group president.

The Farmer’s Club had also started doing collective work together. They have started maize cultivation in 4 kani (1.2 acres) field and they are expecting to earn around Rs. 30,000/-.

Seeing the success of this intervention JUST plans to take forward this model to other FARM NE Project villages. JUST further plans to link farmers with other Government Departments other than ICAR to strengthen strong linkages with government schemes and projects to generate the required assistance to benefit the smallholders.