UP's Mirzapur Sees 1,221 Women Farmers Join Hands To Build ₹10.5 Lakh Agricultural Enterprise
· Free Press Journal
Lucknow, October 23: Under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's leadership, Uttar Pradesh is making sustained efforts to strengthen rural livelihoods, promote women's financial independence, and connect self-help groups with entrepreneurship. In this endeavor, Mirzapur Chhanwar Agro Farmer Producer Organization is emerging as a model of women’s empowerment. Led by women farmers in the Chhanbe development block, the company has so far brought 1,221 women shareholders on board. Through agricultural marketing and other business activities, it is working to increase women’s incomes and strengthen their economic self-reliance.
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To understand this model, Saurabh Kumar Tiwari, Additional Secretary at the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, recently visited the district. He learned about women’s leadership, collective decision-making, market linkages, business expansion and innovations related to rural livelihoods. He also examined the institutional development and operational practices of the women-led Farmer Producer Company. District Magistrate Pawan Kumar, Ganesh Mahalawat, Young Professional at the National Center for Good Governance (NCGG), Rajiv Kumar Tripathi, representative of the Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission (UPSRLM), Sadar Sub-Divisional Magistrate Mahendra Singh, Deputy Commissioner (Self-Employment) Ramashankar Singh, Block Development Officer Rampal, DMM Saroj Pandey and the Transform Rural India (TRI) team were also present.
Established in 2022-23, the company's women directors and shareholder farmers shared their plans for the future. Subsequently, Kanchan Gupta, Kavita Rahi, Shalini Dubey, and other board members briefed the visitors on the business activities undertaken by women farmers. Women directors also shared their experience in wheat procurement and supply, saying they supplied 25 metric tonnes of wheat.
Women are engaged in activities such as produce aggregation, marketing, custom hiring centers, agricultural residue management and biofertilizer production. The Farmer Producer Organization has generated a business margin of about ₹10.5 lakh, exceeding its annual operating expenses. The women directors also explained the organization's institutional structure, spanning member groups, producer groups, the Farmer Producer Organization and the state-level federation. They outlined their approach to decentralized planning, their strategy to help every member become a ‘Lakhpati Didi’, and efforts to strengthen agricultural value chains. Rather than limiting rural women to livelihood activities alone, the initiative seeks to involve them in business operations, market linkages and collective economic decision-making. This approach is an important step towards strengthening women’s role in the rural economy.
Additional Secretary Saurabh Kumar Tiwari, accompanied by District Magistrate Pawan Kumar, also visited Vindhya Mart, operated by self-help groups within the Maa Vindhyavasini complex. There, he interacted with local women entrepreneurs and appreciated the district administration’s efforts to provide market access to local products and promote women-led enterprises. He also sought information on opportunities to expand the Van Priya scheme in Mirzapur, solar-powered irrigation systems, natural resource conservation, and coordination among departments to promote climate-resilient rural development.
Women-led Farmer Producer Companies are not merely a means of buying and selling agricultural produce. They also promote women’s identity as farmers, ownership, leadership, collective entrepreneurship and economic empowerment. Developed with support from community institutions, the district administration, the Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission, and Transform Rural India, this women-led initiative serves as a model for other regions of the state. These women farmers' activities help organize rural women and connect them with agricultural businesses, markets, and economic decision-making. Under the women-led FPO, business activities include biofertilizer production, as well as the sale and purchase of seeds, pesticides and cattle feed, along with paddy and wheat procurement and marketing.
The Vindhya Dham Prasadam Box contains a variety of items, including puja materials, flower garlands, chunris offered to the Goddess, Banarasi sarees, red peda, assorted pickles, murabba, carpet products, incense sticks, bamboo products, mixed dry fruits, and earthen lamps, among others.