These are the stories of Kamla Ben of Hanumanpura village in Banswara’s Ghatol block, and Raju Bai of Biluda village in Dungarpur’s Sabla area. One saved indigenous seeds and breathed new life into her village’s farming. The other set up a plant nursery and gave her family, and the villages around her, a fresh source of support. Banswara and Dungarpur together make up the Vagad region, whose identity is closely tied to the Bhil community. Nature has been generous here, with rich biodiversity, fertile land and plentiful water sources. Yet unsuitable farming practices have worn down the soil, cut yields and let poverty spread.

It was against this backdrop that Vaagdhara began its work. The organisation aims to build institutions of tribal communities that can offer sustainable livelihoods, drawing on scientific and indigenous knowledge, and can secure education and nutrition for children. Its thinking rests on three ideas: true farming, true childhood and true democracy. The vehicle for putting this vision on the ground has been the “Saksham Samuh”, or Saksham groups. Women in many villages formed these groups to move towards self-reliance and sustainable livelihoods, and as a result many families depend less on migrant labour. The effort also draws on the old tradition of “Halma”, in which an entire community comes together as volunteer labour for a shared task. The stories of Kamla Devi and Raju Bai come out of this work.

Kamla Devi is one of these women. Born into a family where tradition was considered weightier than a daughter’s dreams, she was married into a farming family at just thirteen. After that, household responsibilities and social expectations almost entirely closed the doors of education to her.

But her husband, Kantilal Maida, stood by her at every turn. Together they managed the farm, and in lean times they also worked as daily-wage labourers. Even through those hard years, Kamla Ben’s yearning to learn something new and to do something for society never went out.

That yearning found its path in 2019, when Vaagdhara launched a Saksham group in Hanumanpura. Its aim was to lead the village towards traditional farming and swaraj, and to reduce dependence on the market. Kamla Ben took it not as charity or assistance but as an opportunity. She developed a deep understanding of seed conservation, composting, animal husbandry and soil health.

Most farmers in Hanumanpura grew a single kind of crop. This kept eroding the fertility of the land and kept incomes limited. Kamla Ben challenged that practice. On her small plot she grew vegetables, grains, medicinal plants and crops from indigenous seeds all together. In place of chemical fertiliser, she used manure made from cow dung, neem and other local materials.

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Her effort paid off. Farming that once met only the household’s needs now earns more than six thousand rupees every month through vegetables and other produce. The other farmers in the village saw the change.

Farmers picking fresh vegetables from the field: diverse farming supports both the family kitchen and its income

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Kamla Ben recognised the most basic and most neglected link in farming, which is seed. She understood that the lack of good indigenous seed was the biggest difficulty for the village’s farmers. So she began collecting and safeguarding seeds. Today she holds indigenous varieties of pearl millet, sorghum, black gram, chickpea, green gram, maize, kodra, red okra, bottle gourd, bitter gourd, cluster bean, chilli, tomato, groundnut, turmeric, ginger and garlic.

She does not merely grow these seeds herself. She also gives them to other farmers in the village at very low prices. That is why, whenever anyone in Hanumanpura needs seed, hers is the first name that comes up.

The importance of this work becomes clearer when viewed on a larger scale. Citing the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, it is said that the world has lost about three-quarters of its plant genetic diversity since 1900, as farmers abandoned local varieties for uniform, high-yielding ones. According to the same report, a large share of the seeds needed for diverse food crops remains safe with small farmers, and women are playing a leading role in preserving this diversity. Kamla Ben’s seed collection is a local picture of this global reality. Along with the seed she is saving for the next generation, the village’s flavours, its understanding of the seasons and its ancestors’ experience are also being saved.

Alongside farming, Kamla Ben has also revived traditional medicinal knowledge. Kantilal had learned about Ayurvedic herbs from his grandmother, mother and father. The couple began passing that knowledge on to the village’s women and children. Kamla Ben now teaches women how things like tulsi, giloy, navli, neem, drumstick and turmeric can help with common ailments. She also explains how home remedies can reduce dependence on medicines.

Yet her greatest achievement may be the confidence she has awakened in the women of the village. She brought together nineteen women to form the “Saksham Mahila Samuh”, the Saksham women’s group. Today these women, besides helping with farming, take responsibility for seed conservation, composting and the use of home remedies. They are also carrying this knowledge to other families.

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A meeting of the Saksham Mahila Samuh: a shared forum for learning, teaching and decision-making

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Kamla Ben now attends gram panchayat meetings and openly raises issues such as education, women’s health and sanitation. She has become a participant in policies and decisions.

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Animal husbandry is also an important part of rural livelihoods: a woman farmer with a goat

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Now let us turn to Dungarpur. In the midst of this same greenery, Raju Bai of Biluda village, in Lembata gram panchayat of the Sabla area, is known for her industriousness and her eagerness to learn.

In 2019, Vaagdhara formed a Saksham group in the Sabla area so that traditional farming could be restored to its original form. Four years later, in 2023, to promote local agroforestry, it began selecting farmers interested in raising saplings, so that the community could get plants in its own area. Raju Bai was already a progressive farmer and was looking for a steady income. When the training showed her the benefits of a nursery, her confidence grew. With her family’s support, she made up her mind.

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Women of the Saksham group working together in the shade of trees-Women with healthy fruit and medicinal plants raised in the nursery

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Raju Bai did not just listen to what was taught in the training; she put it into practice. The organisation taught her how to raise saplings, how to prepare the soil mix, irrigation, protecting the plants, using clean bags, and how the market works. From the cashew, jackfruit, guava, lemon, drumstick, amla and giloy seeds the organisation provided, she planted seeds in bags filled with the right soil. Watering every day, balancing sun and shade, and protecting the plants from disease: she carried out all of this with discipline. As a result, more than two thousand plants grew healthy in her nursery.

Then came the time to earn. The organisation bought 1,238 saplings, and she received 16,000 rupees. The remaining thousand or so she sold in her own and neighbouring villages, earning 13,000 rupees. In all, her income came to 29,000 rupees. Worked out, each plant fetched around thirteen rupees on average. That income, from a bag of soil and a few seeds, was the result of her dedication and technical understanding.

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Preparing to take the finished saplings from village to village for sale

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Her family’s income depended on farming, and farming takes the full brunt of the weather. A nursery was work that could bring regular income all year round. She also understood the needs of her community. There was demand for fruit-bearing plants in the village, but they were not easy to find. So the nursery served not just her but the whole village.

She wanted her family to be part of this work too. So she taught her son, Rajkumar, the techniques of raising saplings. Rajkumar took up the work with enthusiasm and, to scale the nursery up, ordered a thousand large bags online. This blend of an old rural tradition and the digital resourcefulness of a new generation is something to see. For Raju Bai, the work became a source of self-respect. In her words, “Earning through your own hard work is the greatest pride.”

The work of Kamla Ben and Raju Bai is different, one saves seeds and the other raises saplings, but a common thread runs through both. Instead of waiting on the market, each turned her village’s need into her own opportunity. One gave the village indigenous seeds, the other gave it fruit-bearing plants. Through their own hard work and discipline, they made the work their own, and behind both stood their families: Kamla Ben’s husband and Raju Bai’s son.

Seen against the larger picture of the country, these stories matter even more. Women are said to make up about 48 per cent of India’s agricultural workforce, yet their share of operational holdings is less than 14 per cent. According to the Agriculture Census 2015-16, women held 13.96 per cent of all holdings and only 11.72 per cent of the operated area. In other words, the women who sweat the most in the fields have very little land in their names. This affects their access to credit, government schemes and markets, because a farmer’s identity is often determined by the land title.

This is why collective structures like the Saksham Mahila Samuh become important. Analysis of this subject suggests that as long as change in land ownership remains slow, women-led farmer producer organisations and self-help groups can open an institutional path for women. That is exactly what happened in Hanumanpura and Biluda. The groups gave women training, mutual support and a shared platform, and with that support they shaped their own identities.

The essence of both stories is the same. Real change comes not from the announcement of some grand scheme but from below, from the roots of society, where a woman sows seed in a field and raises saplings in a bag. These two women of Vagad have shown that extraordinary change is possible even with limited resources, provided the desire to learn, self-confidence and community support come together.

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Vikas Parashram Meshram is an independent writer, social worker, and researcher associated with rural development. He regularly writes on issues related to tribal communities, rural livelihoods, agriculture, climate change, and social transformation. He is a regular contributor to Asia-Pacific Research.

All images in this article are from the author

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