Andhra Pradesh - Others   

Tribal woman scripts success story

S. Harpal Singh

Kumra Mankubai takes up cultivation and reaps profits

HARD WORK PAYS: Mankubai with her relatives on her agricultural land.

JAMGAON (ADILABAD): Her 40 years of gritty struggle had resulted in getting back 18 acres of agricultural land from the possession of a non-tribal in March this year.

The next logical step was to take up cultivation which Kumra Mankubai, a Gond tribal, did and did it with great success.

Under her guidance, the family saved Rs. 40,000 from the kharif cultivation after repaying old debts and the fresh crop loan. This is considered to be an achievement in tribal areas where penury is the order of the day.

As a measure of thanksgiving, her brothers gifted her 10 out of the 18 acres. "We are experiencing happy days because of her efforts. She deserves the 10 acres," said Thodsam Gangu, one of the brothers.

Earlier, Mankubai and other family members either worked as farm labourers or cultivated on meagre pieces of land taken on lease.

The toil of those uneventful years left a debt of Rs. 40,000.

"I cultivated soyabean in 15 acres and cotton in the remaining three. The soya yield was 70 quintals while the cotton yield was 12 quintals. These are not great quantities but we could not do any better because of the initial constraints faced by the family. I also availed a crop loan of Rs. 20,000," said Mankubai.

An NGO working in the area purchased the soya at Rs. 1,100 per quintal while private traders purchased cotton at Rs. 1,900, giving her a net profit of Rs. 40,000 after clearing the debt.

Mankubai has sown Bengal gram, wheat and jowar for the rabi season in her field.

This again is a new phenomenon for a second crop. "I have invested the profits of the kharif season now. I think it will again be a good show," hoped the Gond woman farmer.

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