2.19L women get training on 'sustainable agriculture'

Kolkata: In a major success in empowering women, the Mamata Banerjee government has provided training to 2.19 lakh women from families of marginal farmers on "sustainable agriculture".

The initiative is helping those families solely dependant on agriculture and its allied sector to increase their income with the active participation of "mahila kisans (women farmers)".

With the project taken by the Bengal government as an initiative towards rural livelihood promotion under "Anandadhara", the state government had initiated providing training to women members of Self-Help Groups on sustainable agriculture and has so far provided training to women from 2.19 lakh families in as many as 1,901 villages. The state government has empowered women by providing training in 538 Gram Panchayats in 117 blocks.

It needs a special mention that it is one of the flagship programmes of the state Panchayats and Rural Development department in strengthening the rural economy of Bengal.

Most interestingly, progressive women farmers are playing a key role in providing training to the "mahila kisans" across the state.

Speaking about the outcome of the programme, a state government officer said it is helping to reduce the cost of cultivation as women are well trained in using the locally available resources in farming activities.

"There are examples in which a trained 'mahila kisan' started earning by growing saplings on a small piece of land near her house and selling it in a local market in the Jangalmahal area," said the officer.

The training also helped women farmers pick up knowledge on growing 36 different varieties of leafy vegetables resulting in agricultural activities in the same piece of land, facilitating an increase in the income of the farmers' families. The training is also helping to promote the preservation and use of seeds of local varieties that leads to an increase in yield with a suitable climate for the same.

Again, setting up organic clusters and its "Participatory Guarantee Systems" (PGS) certification comes as a higher order intervention of the programme. In the past one year, six organic clusters have been set up in different parts of the state under the West Bengal State Rural Livelihood Mission in pilot project mode involving around 1,200 women members of Self-Help Groups. Clusters have come up at Jamna Gram Panchayat in Labpur, Baroghoria Gram Panchayat in Dhupguri, Samalbong Gram Panchayat in Kalimpong I block and Kagay Gram Panchayat in Kalimpong II block.

With the success of six organic clusters on 587.88 hectare area, the state Panchayats and Rural Development department aims to set up 36 more such clusters, mainly in Jangalmahal and the Hills.