Songlhuh village is one of the oldest villages among the Kuki tribe in Athibung block of Peren District, Nagaland. It is one of the FARM villages with 112 households and a population of 512. Most of the inhabitants are shifting cultivators. They cultivate paddy along with varieties of vegetables like yam, tapioca, ginger, chilly, brinjal, sesame etc.

Documentation and dissemination of non-cultivated food and vegetables has been a successful programme as it motivates the communities regarding consumption and conservation of products which are found in the forests of Athibung block.

In this village, 25 year old, Miss Margaret is a member of the Songluh Farmers Club (FC). Born in a cultivator household and being the eldest in the family grew up taking responsibilities from a very young age. She is the bread earner of the family with 5 siblings who are still pursuing their studies.

Margaret is one among few women who stood up on their own feet when things went spiral during the Covid pandemic and her parents could not earn their wages. She took up an initiative to try her hand in selling brooms. Margaret came to realize the importance of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) through the FARM Team of Development Association of Nagaland (DAN), a Caritas India partner, who shared about the importance of NTFPs and their value addition. She is now a regular participant in the activities and programmes of FARM NE III.

Documenting and disseminating of non-cultivated food and motivating youngsters to take up agricultural practices and transfer of traditional knowledge carried out by DAN, inspired Margaret to take a step forward and think of livelihood based on NTFPs. “We facilitated her to learn and understand the benefits, uses and the process of making a livelihood with NTPFs”, said Ms Roko Senuo, Coordinator, FARM.

She came up with the idea of collecting brooms from the forest, even though it is available for a very short period, which is January and February. Since household chores kept her on her toes, Margaret could not manage much time to harvest brooms from the forests. She would request members of her FC to collect brooms in lieu of money. This helped the other members as well to earn money as well. 16 FC members came forward to support her and harvested around 6,000 kgs of brooms from the forests at Rs 10 per Kg. Margaret made a profit of Rs, 1,20,000 initially from the first sell out.

“When brooms are partially dry, I bind together in a bundle of 10 Kgs which makes things easier for conveyance to the market”, said Margaret. She received help from her friend Mr. Cobtinngam who is from Athibung, just 2 km away from Songlhuh village. Cobtinngam, who is a dealer of various items like brooms, timbers etc., carries the brooms to Dimapur and to sell at a price of Rs.60 per kg.

In 2022, she started to collect brooms in the month of January and first week of February. She has collected around 6000 kilograms of brooms again. When the brooms will get dried and ready for sale, she is expecting a profit of Rs. 2,000,00. Here also she took the support of the FC members and they earned Rs 1,20,000.

She expresses that it was not an easy business as the brooms needs a lot of care. They need to be dried under the sun and in the evening. They also must be kept safe from rains and dew drops. But thanks to the low labour cost, the business is very profitable compared to selling vegetables. Margaret believes this business to be a successful model since it requires lesser manpower.

Her business of brooms is really helping the community as brooms can be easily collected even by children. As soon as the month of January arrives, villagers start the collection process so they could pay for the education of their children. Margaret’s work not only helped her earn a livelihood but she imparted inspiration in others as well to pull themselves up by the bootstraps. In this regard DAN has tried to ensure that the Youth are motivated to do something that benefits their family as well as their community.