Agricultural Labourer to Livestock Entrepreneur – Ranjana Bapurao Kamadi
Ranjana had only one acre of non-cultivable land, thus she was a daily wage labourer, she became a member of the SHG, then Pashu Sakhi got 43 days of training on goat rearing, purchased her first goat, taking loans from SHG that has increased now to 5 goats and 20 kids; established a `Memna Nursery’ for 10 kids and earned Rs 1,14,200 this year. She has trained 46 fellow SHG members and brought down goat mortality from 30% to zero; increased their income from goat to about Rs 36,000 per annum.
Ranjana got married at a tender age of ten years in a joint family. After six years of her marriage, her in-laws’ joint family had broken, and her husband got only one-acre non-agricultural land. To cope with the growing financial needs, she started working as an agricultural labourer. She had to leave her home early in the morning till evening for work. Though her husband was not in favour of her hardships, she had to continue for her child’s education and future. In spite of such hard work of both Ranjana and her husband, they were barely able to manage their household expenses; even Ranjana’s weekly saving in her SHG for Rs 20 became difficult for them.
Ranjana studied till 9th standard and was desperately searching for opportunities to enhance her income. Listening to the experiences of goat rearing from one of the fellow SHG members, Ranjana got elated and bought a pregnant she-goat with Rs. 7000, taking loans from her SHG and putting her savings together. She got training from UMED on goat rearing. The challenge has increased manifold, as now she has to look after the goat as well, in addition to work as a daily wage labourer. Her diligence and hard work paid off; gradually, the size of her herd increased, and so did her confidence in goat rearing. The journey was not smooth, in 2012, there was flooding in her village due to heavy rain, and most of her fellow SHG members had lost their livestock due to after-flood diseases in livestock. Her trainings paid off, and she could save her herd except two of the goats.
In 2015, seeing her performance as goat rearer, the Village Organisation (VO) nominated her name as Pashu Sakhi. Ranjana who never travelled beyond the border of Yavatmal district, when learnt that she had to travel to various places outside her state for training, she faced initial challenges to convince her family to work as Pashu Sakhi, but later she could convince and go for a long residential training in the Goat Trust’, Lucknow. The experience of staying outside her village for long days and learning many new things had energized her with confidence in technology as well as speaking with people. Buoyant Ranjana, just after the training she did everything that was assigned to do after training. She got a total of 43 days of various trainings. Bringing in the change in practices of others as Pashu Sakhi was difficult for her as she was new in goat rearing compared to others in her village. With UMED’s intervention, she was accepted in her village as Pashu Sakhi and gradually, with her expertise and experience, she became famous in her village and supported 46 goat rearers as Pashu Sakhi. Now she earns about Rs 10,200 per annum from her service charge (de-worming, vaccination) and sale of value-added products like danamishran, pashuchaat, masala bolus in her village as well as adjoining villages. In addition to these, she also helps goat rearers and earns about Rs 3,000 for every goat sold which has now gone about Rs. 6,000 per goat.
Her confidence as Pashu Sakhi has increased manifold and now she has taken Rs 45,000 as a loan from UMED from the special livelihood project. She established “Memna Nursery” in which she keeps ten kids for six months, which earns her a profit of Rs 18,000 per year. In addition to this, she has earned Rs 80,000 from the sale of 20 kids and five goats of her own. This year her total earning has reached to Rs 1,14,200. She is now planning to set up a full-fledged goatery unit.
With her dedication and perseverance, in May 2015 she supported 20 SHG members (goat rearers) with 130 goats which have increased to 54 rearers with 294 goats in just four years (2019). Mortality of goats has come down to zero from earlier as high as 30%. Her service helped to increase income per goat rearer by Rs 36,206 annually.
Now she is a well-known trainer for the new goat rearers, keeps full records of the number of kids, goat and their health. On 12th July 2018, she got an opportunity of interacting with Honourable Prime Minister of India in Ranchi.
Ranjana feels proud of sharing her journey from daily wage labourer to well-known Pashu Sakhi to run her family comfortably to her interaction with the Prime Minister. She is now not worried about her child’s future.
