Varalakshmi (42 yrs) and her husband Krisna (45 yrs) live in the village Laxmareddyguda, Shankarpally Mandal, R.R District of Andhra Pradesh. They belonged to a middle-income family. Krisna is a farm labourer and varalakshmi is a tailor. Some times she also goes to field as farm labourer. She is a member of the Self-Help Group named Bhulakshmi. She actively participates in community service and also encourages other members of her group.

Technology Intervention: Varalakshmi attended the training programme on fuel saving technology (Steam Cooker) conducted by All India Coordinated Research Project team on 16 May 2006. She was impressed by the Steam Cooker demonstration and got motivated to use it in her home. She borrowed the Steam Cooker from the AICRP Centre and used it for two days.

She cooked rice, dal with gongura and boiled eggs within 45 minutes. She felt very happy by using the technology as it saved time and fuel. She repeated the cooking in steam cooker in the next day and prepared rice, dal and potato curry in the same time. Previously she used to spend 2kg wood and some agricultural waste as fuel for cooking, but after the use of steam cooker only half of the fuel was consumed. This made her quite happy. Another advantage she experienced was that continuous stirring and constant attention is not required in cooking the food in a steam cooker. Further, after adopting this technology she need not to strain the water from the rice as she used to do previously, thus minimizing the nutrient loss. Varalakshmi and her family members were happy to adopt the steam cooker as it saved time, energy and money.

Agro processing - a success story

Sangram Vikram Self Helf Group of the village Konjar comprises of 14 members. Amita Pradhan and Surekha Dash are the president and Secretary of the group respectively. The group was formed as a part of the study of NRCWA, Bhubaneswar and it opened Bank Account in SBI, Pipili branch in September 2002. The monthly deposit of the group is Rs. 280/- @ Rs. 20/- per member. Group members took a land area 0.2 ha on leased basis for three years @ Rs. 650/- per year. In November 2002 they grew vegetables like tomato, cauliflower, green leafy vegetales, bean and patato. Their total expenditure for this enterprise was Rs. 320/- . After two months they sold the produce in the market and earned a gross profit of Rs. 1278/- with a net profit of Rs. 958/- . However, after skill development training on value addition of fruit and vegetable, this group got motivated to start enterprise on processing of fruits and vegetables. They prepared lime and orange squash with an investment of Rs. 1120/- and sold it in the local market @ Rs. 55/- per bottle. The gross profit from this enterprise was Rs. 2070/- with a net profit of Rs. 950/-.

This group was also trained for agro-processing through skill development trainings. After that they started making different types of Badi with a total expenditure of Rs. 280/- . They sold the prepared products in the Bhbneswar city market and Exhibitions organized by Orissa Rural Marketing Society at Cuttack, @ Rs.60/- per kg. They earned a gross profit of Rs. 740/- with a net profit of Rs. 460/-. Thus, in a year’s time their net profit from the enterprises was Rs. 2368/-.

This inspired the group to continue with the efforts to earn money. Amita Pradhan, President of the group being a very energetic and having leadership qualities, tried to create Marketing Avenue for their produce. In the process, she came into contact with a renowned company like Hindustan Lever Limited. The company was very happy with the quality of the product developed by Sangram Vikram SHG. The company placed an order of 40 lime squash bottles @ Rs. 60/- . Encouraged by the success, the group obtained a loan of Rs. 50000 from the SBI, Pipili for expanding the enterprise / business. The group prepared 2000 lime squash bottles, 50 bottles of tomato puree and also ventured in preparation of different types of spices. Especially Haldi Powder. They are selling spices in poly pack in local market. The products were sold in an exhibition organized by State Govt. to promote SHGs. Thus, the group earned a net profit of Rs. 28000/- after repaying the Bank loan. With this success, Group members have developed self-confidence and a quality of self-reliance. All the members feel that group is their power, depends upon collective ideas and actions. This has helped them to improve their status within the family and outside. Now the members say that they can educate their children and have better food for their children and family.

Technology intervention of Hand Rake

H.Malla reddy is a marginal farmer having six acres of land rresiding in Lakshma Reddyguda village, Shankarpalli mandal, R.R District. He cultivates cotton, maize and tomato in this land. He has five buffaloes and two bullocks. His wife Saritha maintains the cattle shed. Saritha participates in farm operations like sowing, weeding, broadcasting fertilizers, harvesting etc. She also earns income by selling milk within the village.

Training cum demonstration programme was conducted for the use of hand rake on 22 June 2006 by the AICRP center in Lakshma Reddyguda village. Malla reddy and his wife were impressed by the demonstrated technology and were motivated to use this technology for cleaning the cattle shed with hands and transfer it into a bamboo basket. Then she use to clean the floor by upper limbs, lower limbs, back and shoulder muscles. She used to feel that maintenance of cattle shed is a difficult job.

She felt very happy to use the hand rake in her cattle shed, as by use of the hand rake not much bending and squatting positions were required thereby reducing drudgery in cleaning and maintaining the cattle shed. Another advantage she experienced was that she could finish the work in lesser time. This gave her an impetus to increase her income by increasing the number of cattles as the task of maintenance of cattle shed has become easier by adopting the technology.

Technology Intervention of ANGRAU Wheel Hoes: A Success Story

Rajamalla Reddy (40 yrs) and his wife Suseela (36 yrs) live in the village Laxmareddyguda, Shankarpally Mandal,R.R District of Andhra Pradesh. They belonged to a marginal farm family. They own 6 acres of land, in which they have grown tomato in 1.5acres, brinjal in 0.5 acres, maize in 2 acres and in the rest of the land cotton was grown. Suseela is a member of a Self Help Group named Amba, in the village.

A training programme was conducted on drudgery reducing farm technology on 22 june 2006 in village Laxmareddyguda, Shankarpally Mandal. Suseela and Rajamalla Reddy, who participated in the training programmme, became aware of the technology demonstrated. Reddy was very eager to use the technology in his field. He borrowed wheel hoe from AICRP Centre and used it three times in tomato and brinjal farms in the month of July, August and September 2006.

Reddy used to carry out weeding using harrow attached to bullocks. He was worried about using bullocks because some of the crops were damaged during the operation. To overcome this problem he used to engage eight women labour per acre by paying Rs.80/-per head for weeding in his field. Manual power became so costly and he could not engage more people for this activity. After having this wheel hoe he could complete weeding only with two labourers per acre in place of eight thereby reducing the expenditure. The other advantage he experienced was that using the improved technology he could save crop damage and weeding could be done from root level preventing fast growth of weed and mixing up the soil, which helped it better growth of the tomato crops. The added advantage perceived by the couple was that while weeding women used to sit in squatting position which strained their back, upper limbs, lower limbs and stomach. By using wheel hoe they felt that they could do weeding in standing position helping in drudgery reduction. Initially couple used the technology in the tomato field but felt that it would also be useful in jowar, maize and brinjal crops.