Diversifying Livelihoods: Pooja’s Path to Independence

Cultivating Change: Pooja’s Entrepreneurial Odyssey to Diversify Incomes

Pooja Bhagat is a resident of Gadra village in the North East Gadra panchayat. She lives in the village with her husband, kids, and in-laws. They have 10 decimal agricultural land, which they use to cultivate paddy for household consumption. Her husband takes up carpentry work orders in the villages nearby and in Jamshedpur.

Pooja became a member of Singhi Marshal Urja Mahila Samuh in 2020. AIDENT was mobilising women for training in mushroom and vermicompost production, and Pooja enrolled in it when she got to know about it. After the training, Pooja decided to start oyster mushroom production with 20 bags on a very small scale. She realized that mushroom consumption is high in the area, and she would be able to sell her produce if she scaled her production up. She also got assistance from a government scheme for two vermicompost beds through AIDENT and started doing production in those two beds. She does oyster mushrooms for 1 season and doesn’t cultivate during other seasons as paddy straw mushrooms can’t grow in her village environment. She explains her income from both businesses as follows:

Mushroom Production		Vermicompost Production
Particulars	Details	Particulars	Details
No of beds	80	No of beds	2
Expenses for straw, spawn, etc for 80 beds	3500	Per bed cost	2100
No of kgs produced in 1 bed	2	Worms cost per kg	800
No of kgs production in 80 beds	160	Cow dung price per tractor per bed	1500
Selling price per kg	200	No of kgs of earthworms required in 1 bed	3
total revenue	32000	No of truckloads of cow dung in 1 bed	1
profit in rupees	28500	total one time-investment for worms & beds (in Rs)	6600
		Per cycle producion in kgs	600
		Price per kg in Rs	10
		Income across 4 cycles in a year (in rupees)	24000
		Profit excluding worms & bed as they are one-time costs (in Rs)	21000

She sells the vermicompost to SHGs and in the nearby areas. Also, AIDENT collects it from her in case there is a large order. She also had a small area in the back of her house where they had been growing some vegetables for the last 20 years. After AIDENT’s intervention, she planned her kitchen garden systematically to include multiple fruits and vegetables.

She earned a revenue of almost Rs 52,000 and a profit of Rs 49,000 last year. For any business, if there is a need for capital, she takes a loan from her group. On asking how has the intervention by AIDENT helped her family, she beams.

“I’m able to get an additional income of Rs 50-60,000 a year for my household from the mushroom and vermicompost production. We utilize the straw obtained from Paddy cultivation in mushroom production, and the mushroom bed residue for vermicomposting, which saves cost for us. The kitchen garden helped me not only reduce my expenses but also secure nutrition for my family. My husband also contributes to managing these activities whenever he’s not engaged in farming or carpentry. We can take care of the family needs better now.”

She has understood the businesses and their marketing and is ready to increase her production in the coming days.