Sowing Dreams, Reaping Joy

Binvisacha khayala bhetatayamdashWe get to eat poisonfree foodrdquo It is the deepest joy the kind that comes from tearing into a bhakri of organic bajra untouched by urea One of these says Suman Ovhal 50 satisfies her more than two made from hybrid grainBorn into a Matang caste family in Khutewadi Ovhalrsquos life was shaped by hardship Her father a landless labourer worked as a stone carrier and carpenter earning just enough grain At 10 she joined the familyrsquos lifelinemdashcutting sugarcane to surviveAt 12 she was married into the Ovhal family in Kathoda Beed Her parents had little choicemdashthe groomrsquos family owned gayraan zameen making the proposal more appealing But daily wage labour remained their reality Her husband played the drum in a local band but that was seasonal the farm was their real sustenancePadma Bhusarirsquos family opposed her planting urad moong sesame and maizemdashnever before grown on their soilmdashbut when the crops thrived they had to acknowledge her experimentation PicSwati SatputeIn Kathoda Suman joined a large family where relentless farm work continued Over time she cultivated her own oneacre plot growing bajra chillies drumsticks and leafy greensmdashenough to share Joining a bachat gat selfhelp group helped her shift to organic farming improving her familyrsquos nutrition much in consonance with Saint Dnyaneshwarrsquos disapproval of akhadyacheni bhojanemdashfood lacking quality fails to satisfyOvhal is one of 12 women farmers in Pushkala Plentiful a bilingual booklet by MAKAAM Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch and SOPPECOM Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management The title alludes to PS Regersquos renowned Marathi poemLaunched in 2021 the farming initiative now includes 250 women cultivating 140 acres of poisonfree land across six Maharashtra districts supported by grassroots organisations Written by Prashant Khunte and Swati Satpute with English translations by Mini Shrinivasan the stories reflect resilience knowledge and the quiet revolution of women reclaiming farmingSuman Ovhal cultivated her own oneacre plot growing bajra chillies drumsticks and leafy greens Joining a bachat gat selfhelp group helped her shift to organic farming PicPrashant KhunteThe summaries in both English and Marathi are inspiring but could have been more muscular Richer insights could have deepened the narratives but they often blur together making it harder to distinguish each womanrsquos unique journey Caste realities jaat vaastav are mentioned but not explored The magic of Regersquos Pushkala could have been carried over more symbolically in individual stories The layered Marathi cadence pushkalatali pushkal tu feels inevitably flattened in Englishmdashas the two languages negotiate life differently But what the book loses in detail it gains in sincerity It didnrsquot start as a book but grew organically from research and a shared commitment to sustainable communitydriven farming Rarely have Maharashtrarsquos women farmers been heroed like this These women challenge the mainstream agrarian model which extracts natural resources replaces diversity with monocultures and prioritises chemical inputs over sustainable investmentsThe Pushkala collage gains from grassroots collaborators like Chetna Vikas Prakriti Nagpur Prerna Gramvikas Sanstha Yavatmal Ugam Grameen Vikas Sanstha Sahyadhri Bahuddeshiya Sanstha Hingoli Rajalaxmi Pratishthan Parbhani and Jagar Pratishthan BeedItrsquos the dawn of new hope for women farmers like Sangeeta Tayade who sow indigenous seeds and eschew the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides PicPrashant KhunteThe purpose of the book is to bring visibility to the women farmersmdashtheir resilience agency and innovativeness ldquoWhile a book cannot ease the problems of the women it is the years of work that has gone into it that certainly does alleviate their miseries It creates opportunities and a space for them to assert their rights over resources such as land water knowledgerdquo says Seema Kulkarni one of the bookrsquos conceptualisers and senior fellow of SOPPECOM Pushkala spanned over five years coinciding with COVID19 a time when securing food became a challenge for women farmers sugarcane labourers migrant workers adivasi and dalit womenmdasheveryone pledged to prioritise food and nutrition security by growing diverse up to 20 crops on their land before selling produce in the marketAll the women in Pushkala share a beliefmdashfarming that nurtures the soil Sixtyyearold Sattubai Paikrao from Basamba Hingoli cultivates four acres She never attended school but is known as an innovator When delayed rains threatened moong she planted podless plants to enrich the soil When caterpillars infested her toor crop she shook the plants crushed the fallen pests into the soil and solved the problemmdashno chemicals needed Her biggest discoverymdashdecomposed nilgai dungmdashboosted her garlic yieldSattubairsquos leadership has drawn 30 women of diverse backgrounds into organic farming As the book highlights her Dalit neoBuddhist identity has not deterred her following across Wanjari Mali Charmakar and Pareet communitiesPadma Bhusarirsquos leadership began with a setbackmdashfailing Class 9 after missing an exam due to excessive menstrual bleeding She dropped out married young and entered a farming household despite her urban upbringing knowing nothing of cultivation After losing her firstborn at 12 she balanced grief household duties and raising her second child Through Prakriti she resisted genetically modified Bt cotton and chemical fertilisers Her family opposed her planting urad moong sesame and maizemdashnever before grown on their soilmdashbut when the crops thrived they had to accept She later introduced organic pumpkins challengingtraditional taboosThe book highlights women farmer leaders who despite the small scale of their experiments inspire others Chanda Ghodam Warud Ralegao Yavatmal turned her halfacre farm into a lab developing a pesticide for her rajgira crop She also pioneered ambadi flower pickle unheard of locallySarita Vairale Shelu Bazar Murtizapur Akola lost her husband to debtdriven suicide She planted moong urad vegetables and nonBt cotton A poor first crop didnrsquot deter her she replanted and earned 32000 in one goNilima Renghe Zadgao Ralegao Yavatmal widowed at 27 and pregnant was rejected by her inlaws She fought back and secured three acres for her childKumudini Dhole Champa Saoner Nagpur widowed twice and rejected by her stepson legally claimed her farmland Once reliant on markets she now grows her own foodPS Regersquos Pushkala poem was once an alliterative wonder for this columnistmdasha cascade of sound and syllables I never imagined it would return in this green formmdashthe quiet plenty of farms tended by women where the earth gives and is given to in returnSumedha RaikarMhatre is a culture columnist in search of the subtext You can reach her at 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