New year, new beginning for Satmile Club: Expansion of CASI technology in West Bengal

In West Bengal, the Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems Intensification (SRFSI) project started working with eight Farmers’ Clubs from Coochbehar and Malda districts to carry out participatory research in 2014. The project focuses on improving the productivity, profitability and sustainability of smallholder agriculture through CASI practices. From the very beginning, this project has also been encouraging women to participate in project activities, adopt CASI practices for different crops, and amplify the use of CASI technology to enhance their livelihoods.

One good example of success is how female farmers in West Bengal are attracted towards part-time agribusiness occupations to build up their income capacity. Moon Bibi and other women from her community have formed the Mukta Self Help Group and through SRFSI project, they were introduced to the new business opportunity of producing rice seedlings for use in mechanical rice transplanters, also known as a Seedling Factory. Along with financial freedom, the female farmers are also experiencing better health, education and an improved social standing within the community.

Credit goes to Satmile Satish Club O Pathagar (SSCOP) of Coochbehar, one of the SRFSI partners, which is now a center of excellence for rural entrepreneurship as well as an advocate for Conservation Agriculture (CA) in West Bengal. They are a one stop shop for technical support and a training hub for CA and various associated sectors. Much of the training on CA done by Satmile is now self-funded. SSCOP is now focused on moving CA to wider areas, beginning with Sitai, a new block in Coochbehar.

Being far from the city, Sitai has witnessed minimum modernization in agricultural techniques, but it is rich in proactive female farmers who dare to take up new economic opportunities in agriculture. They have formally formed Grambikas Farmers Producer Company (FPC) Ltd and with the help of SSCOP, the all-women FPC members aim to increase their crop yields while promoting sustainability. At the same time SSCOP is equally eager to guide the group through a variety of improved agricultural practices, like Zero Tillage technology and use of a mechanical Rice Transplanter, which improve soil nutrient levels and water efficiency, and also help farmers adapt to changing market and social conditions and to climate risks as well.

As Rabi is knocking on the door, SSCOP team held a meeting on 3rd January 2020 with the Board of Directors and Subscribers of Grambikas FPC where the team explained about CA technology and Rice Transplanter along with Paddy Seedling factory which has been a big success in other areas. In the meeting, the SSCOP team also highlighted the way that CA can mitigate emerging problems in agriculture such as lack of labor and lack of time.

Sharing success stories of Hosneara Bibi and Munni Bibi with the FPC team helped to boost up the confidence in the all-women FPC. The women entrepreneurs of Grambikas FPC are now committed to use CASI technology on 30 acres of land and start a new agricultural journey from mid- January with continuous support from SSCOP.

A strategic plan of SSCOP is to help the women farmers of Grambikas FPC adopt improved agriculture practices and as a result, increase in their produce yield and profits, which will further encourage them to implement mechanical transplanted rice technology. Once the women FPC start a rice seedling enterprise and offer their mechanically transplanted rice services to other farmers, it will become a profitable agri-enterprise for the women’s FPC and thus lead to sustainable impacts of CA Technology.

Since 2014, SRFSI has been collaborating with SSCOP to reach out to more than 70,000 farmers directly and indirectly in Coochbehar and therefore, to scale CASI beyond the lifespan of the project as the latest example here is attempting to do.

For more information, please contact Dr Brendan Brown ([email protected]).