CASE STUDIES

Redefining the domains for women
Ushabai Madhukar Patil - Village Karmad, Block Jamner

Ushabai and her husband Madhukar Patil have a small family of two children - a son and a daughter. They have a 2.5 acre land where they grow rain fed cotton and another ¾ acre land where they have started growing vegetables from the last two years after they bought the Customized drip system. The family well on the land is shared amongst eight brothers and so the quantity of water available to them is very less. The family now grows a variety of vegetables and most of it is sold by them in Jamner market through self retailing as they can get three times its value compared to its price from dealers.

Ushabai,s family has perfect role divisions. She reveals that all the member of her small family are very hardworking. Their underlying principle is to do as much on their own without paying to any middle agency. She and her husband go very early to the farm to attend to the crop and while Madhukar prepares the land by ploughing and harrowing, she sets up the drip system and does picking and harvesting. She feels that the system is very easily manageable and she can handle it independently. Their daughter who studies in the 9th standard does all the household chores in her mothers absence in addition to her studies. Ushabai shares that before they bought drip they were economically in distress primarily due to irrigation constraint. They could take only one crop in a year for cotton and earned only Rs 12 to 15 thousand per annum. With vegetable cultivation the family made a net income of Rs. 25000 in the first year followed by Rs. 40,000 in the second year.

This surge in the family's income is a perfect example of their increasing interest and involvement in farming activities created due to increased opportunities. With access to water for irrigation made available through drip technology, Ushabai and her husband have showered their ¾ acre land with enormous green revolution inputs, care and family labour, while growing the low risk crops on rest of their 2 acre land.

Since they manage their water slowly their plots retain the fertilizers applied on the roots. Spending considerable time in their field has made them "reflective farmers" who are experiencing and learning with every new crop they take. They are becoming aware and through better cropping intensity and growing of high value crops, they are making up for the land constraint that had not allowed them to rise above subsistence agriculture. After successfully overcoming the water constraint they now focus on other agro-inputs which can further increase the yield. They are constantly innovating and searching for new market opportunities like early plantation to get a better price, building linkages in the market, growing new vegetables and exploring the prices of nearby markets. Madhukar makes telephone calls to various market places to obtain information on vegetable prices.

Both Ushabai and Madhuker now have changed perceptions. Their concerns are directed towards yields, fluctuating vegetable prices, timely application of fertilizer etc. Since both have become equally skilled, they have flexibility in role division and Madhukar feels that even if he is away for a month his wife can carry on with the farm activities. At many instances he has acted on her advice and benefited. Once when the chilli seeds were destroyed due to intense heat she suggested to plant bottle guard, which in her opinion could stand the high temperature. They got a good crop and also a good price for it. With the new income, their son is studying computers, and the family has got a new borewell dug on their farm.

Ushabai now identifies herself as a confidant and a well informed woman who many a times even takes the forefront roles like selling the vegetables in the market when her husband is away or preoccupied with other farm activities. These tiny empowering processes have prompted her to take up additional responsibilities of going to the post office or bank, which was earlier done by her husband only.

Though the gossips of the neighbourhood did trouble her initially, she is now strident and confident that like her, other women will also cut across the deep rooted mindsets and come out of their restricted domains to take on new opportunities and roles. The satisfaction and pride of helping her family come out of the economic hardships is clearly reflected when Ushabai says that she is not deterred by the hard work she has to put in, in this new entrepreneurial effort of growing vegetables. She looks at drip system as a transformative technology that has brought a shift in her identity, a journey from a housewife with food insecurity to a skilled farm woman with enriched knowledgebase.

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