Empower Women Farmers in India

Dear Friend

I hope that you and your loved ones are keeping well.

Whilst much of Europe and North America are still shivering through one of the longest cold Winters on record, Spring has most definitely come to this part of Rajasthan.

2018 sees the 50th anniversary of Seva Mandir and while we have many achievements to reflect upon there are constant and changing challenges. Key to the core of Seva Mandir’s ideals has always been fair and equitable practices and how to bring these to the far-flung villages of tribal southern Rajasthan.

Kishan is a farmer in Medi village, Kotra block and lives near to the lentil mill with his parents, wife and two children.

Before Seva Mandir helped to construct the lentil mill in 2011, Kishan was obliged to take his pulse crop into Kher market, across the state border in Gujarat, some 30 km away. The cost of transport was about Rs 50 (US$ 0.77) per sack of pulses and the local traders always rounded down the weight Kishan was selling. They also automatically deducted a further amount on the basis that the sacks would contain stones and other objects to make up the weight.

To add insult to injury the traders were slow to pay and were also money-lenders to Kishan and all the other poor farmers so that they could buy seed from them for next year’s crop. This effectively created a debt trap and the farmers were forced to return to the trader, who had loaned them the money at high rates, to sell their produce at low rates.

Kishan estimated that, without counting the time it took him to physically get his produce to market, he lost between Rs 600–800 (US$ 9–12) per 100 kg of lentils. When you consider that the average income per person in this area is Rs 60–80 a day (GBP 0.70–0.90 or US$ 1.00–1.25) that is a great deal of money to lose.

Since the lentil mill opened, many farmers have started to grow much more than their own family’s requirements, to increase their income. They only have a short distance to travel, the price paid for their produce is a fair market price, based on the exact weight of the pulses and they are paid immediately.

With his increased income, Kishan has been able to buy livestock to further increase the use of his land. He has also sent his two children to school and wants to be able to save as much as possible to help pay for their studies so that they can get decent jobs in the future.

Kishan is on the committee and part of the cooperative and a stakeholder in the lentil mill. 500 other farmers in the area also benefit from selling their produce through the mill, so Kishan’s story is multiplied 500 times over.

Without your help, these small-scale farmers would still be reliant on the middlemen who used to cheat them. So, in addition to helping poor farming families have a better life, you are helping hundreds of children attend school – a very worthwhile investment, of value to whole communities !

Thank you so much.

Regards

Atul Lekhra and the Seva Mandir Team

Follow us on www.facebook.com/sevamandir 

Links:

• Seva Mandir's Website
• Seva Mandir's Facebook Page

Let me start out by wishing you and your loved ones a very Happy New Year.

Over the last ten years the lentil mill has developed in leaps and bounds. From only a meager 100 kilogrammes of pulses produced a decade ago, it has now expanded its output capacity to 70,000 kilogrammes of raw pulses. That's an increase of 700 percent! To keep pace with this expansion, the lentil mill has modernised its infrastructure and added larger and better equipment to be able to keep up with the modern processing requirements and market demand.

As a result, we have recently added a state-of-art machine to the lentil mill arsenal. It is called a Digital Colour Sorter & Separator Machine -better known by its 'pet name' of SORTEX. This amazing piece of machinery digitally grades and separates every grain of finished lentil and sorts them on the basis of colour, size and texture to less than a 5% margin error.

The cost of SORTEX was Rs. 6,00,000 (US $9,500) and the advantages of using it are manifold. Firstly, it separates the lentil into different grades of distinct varieties of pulses, which command a higher price than unsorted pulses in the market. Secondly, it will minimise wastage, as a high proportion of unsorted lentil is discarded in the form of by-products.

No other pulse processing unit in Udaipur district has a machine as sophisticated as SORTEX. As a consequence, Lentil mill (the farmers' federation) will be able to generate more business, which in turn will result in substantial additional income for the group.

But it isn't just the lentil mill that will benefit. More than 10,000 farming families, for whom pulse farming is an integral part of farming practice in the remote tribal areas of southern Rajasthan, will be able to earn more from their crop. By selling to the lentil mill they are cutting out the middle men, so are being paid a fair price for their produce. And now SORTEX will be in operation, we will be able to sell their graded pulses at a higher rate. So it's a winning solution all round.

It is because of your support we have been able to help increase profits of these poor farmers. Thanks for your trust and support, the lentil mill has grown over the period of time increasing income of thousands of farmers who would have otherwise exploited in the supply chain.

We look forward for your continuous support. If your travel brings you to this part of the world, please do visit us.

Warm Regards,

Atul Lekhra and Seva Mandir Team

Follow us on www.facebook.com/sevamandir

Links:

• Seva Mandir's Website
• Seva Mandir's Facebook Page