Beyond the Farm Gate

“Earlier it seemed that farming was everything.”

For Sandhya Devi, it was. Until a few years ago, the fields were her only source of income in Sirokhar village, in the Koraon block of Prayagraj district. Whatever the harvest brought in was all the household had to work with. A poor season or a low price left nothing to fall back on, and the idea of earning from anything other than her own crop seemed out of reach.

The first shift came through her village’s women’s self-help group (SHG). In group meetings, Sandhya learned about financial literacy and saving, and discovered the strength of women working together. She began to see that organised women could do more than earn. They could lead, both in the economy of the village and in its social life.

The real turning point came when Ma Vindhyavasini Prerna Producer Company Limited, a farmer producer organisation (FPO), was formed in her village. Supported by Walmart Foundation and Transform Rural India (TRI), Sandhya joined as a shareholder member, and then went further. She took on the role of sanchalika and chose to run the company’s digital commodity collection centre, where farmers could sell their produce to the FPO.

The start was not easy. In its first year the centre could not operate, so Sandhya sold 40 quintals of her own wheat to the company instead. She stayed with it. The following year, 300 quintals of wheat from farmers in the area were procured through her centre, earning her a net income of ₹13,000. A woman who had once depended entirely on her own harvest was now helping other farmers sell theirs.

From there she kept building. Through the FPO, she began selling seed, pesticide, fertiliser and other farm inputs. Each season she sat down with farmers to understand the problems they were facing, then sourced the right seed, crop protection and crop nutrition for them through the FPO. Slowly, she earned their trust, and the company’s products began reaching village after village through her.

She then spotted another opportunity in cattle feed, and has since become its biggest seller. Last year, when the company partnered with DeHaat, she brought her husband on board as a gram representative. A year on, her network is in direct contact with between 500 and 1,000 farmers. Through the FPO, she has so far earned a profit of about ₹1 lakh.

The impact reaches well beyond her own household. Her work has strengthened her family, and many other women in the village, inspired by her example, are now joining the FPO and the SHGs. Sandhya shares what she knows with them about farm inputs, seed, pesticide and cattle feed, and helps them get their produce to market. Through her efforts, the economic contribution of women in Sirokhar has grown in ways the whole village can see.

That is where the model holds its promise for growth. Sandhya’s journey shows how an SHG can give a woman the confidence to act, and how an FPO can give her the platform to turn that confidence into a business. Each farmer she serves and each woman she brings in widens the network further. Her story is proof that when rural women recognise an opportunity and come together to seize it, any one of them can become self-reliant, and the change spreads from the home to the whole community.

For Sandhya, this is only the beginning. Having seen what she can build, she now wants to scale up her work and create a better life for herself and her family.

“पहले लगता था खेती ही सब कुछ है, लेकिन अब समझ आया कि ज्ञान, संगठन और विश्वास से हम अपने गाँव की पहचान बदल सकते हैं। एफपीओ ने हमें आत्मविश्वास और पहचान दोनों दी है।”
(Earlier it seemed that farming was everything. Now I understand that with knowledge, organisation and trust we can change the identity of our village. The FPO has given us both confidence and recognition.)