Government of India
Parul Mahata
State : West Bengal
District : Jhargram
Block : Nayagram
Village : Baksa
Self Help Group : Maa Laxmi dal
Livelihood Activities : Sal plate maker, Indigenous organic paddy
Lakhpati Didi Journey
Parul Mahata belongs to Baksa village of Jhargram district of West Bengal. She joined Maa Laxmi Dal Self Help Group in her village. Her husband is a farmer. He usually gets work for a very short period of time, mostly during paddy season and not having sustainable income. After joining the Self Help Group, she started training in organic agriculture. She wanted to shift from using chemical fertilizers to organic ones. However, convincing others to join her on this journey proved to be a challenge at first. She started by cultivating indigenous paddy using organic methods on her own farm. As her fields flourished with the goodness of organic farming, others began to take notice. As she honed her skills, she found herself becoming a part of a Farmers Producer Organization (FPO). It didn’t take long for her abilities to shine through and she climbed the ranks to become the Purchasing Officer and then to the CEO of the company. To utilize upland she mobilized and became a collective farmer and started inter-cropping through regenerative agriculture method.
She didn’t stop there. She knew there were leaf collectors in the village and she wanted to make sure they got fair prices for their hard work. So, she started making the Sal plates using these leaves and connected these leaf collectors to better markets. Currently her monthly income is Rs. 13,000/-.
