Women show the way in Kalahandi

Expressbuzz, March 15, 2010
BHAWANIPATNA: Women have stolen a march on men so far as onion cultivation in Kalahandi is concerned.


They are involved in all stages of cultivation from preparation of land to planting, watering and taking care of the crop.

Kharsel, a small village in Bhawanipatna block, is one of the bright examples of emancipation of women through onion cultivation.

The initiative of women has brought about a social transformation in the village.

The village is situated in an inaccessible area between Tel and Udanti rivers in a rain shadow zone.

A decade back there was largescale migration of people from the village in search of livelihood. However, 2002 turned out to be a watershed year in the village when women started onion cultivation forming self-help groups. Now 12 SHGs are operating in the area and 350 acres in the village are under onion cultivation. When women started scripting a success story, the male members soon began lending a helping hand and migration became a thing of the past. Now, Kharsel is popularly known as onion village of the area.

However, these successful women are facing problems due to lack of government support. Storage facility is virtually non-existent in the village. One 50-tonne capacity bulk storage house, constructed four years back at Palna, two km from Kharsel, by Horticulture Department collapsed in the same year due to poor construction work.

Construction of another storage facility at Dumria, three km from Kharsel, is hanging fire. Construction work for the 100-tonne facility began in 2007 with an investment of Rs 4.63 lakh.

Bilas Majhi, secretary of Saraswati SHG of Kharsel village, rued that in the absence of storage facilities farmers are forced to sell their produce to traders at throwaway prices depriving them of profit.

She said last year the Horticulture Department asked the farmers to construct storage facilities on their own and accordingly 10 farmers of the village constructed mini onion storage houses, each having 120 quintal capacity, with an investment of Rs 16,000 each.

However, the 50 per cent subsidy as promised is yet to be paid to them. She further alleged that the farmers are not getting necessary technical and other support from Agriculture Department. This year onion will be harvested after one month.

Some of the pockets in western Orissa, including Bhawanipatna, Golamunda, Narla and Kesinga blocks of Kalahandi district, Bangomunda, Turekela, Muribahal and Titilagarh blocks of Balangir district, Khariar and Komna blocks of Nuapada district and Boudh and Angul districts are traditional onion growing areas of the State.

Farmers in Kalahandi dig temporary wells known as ‘Chahalas’ in the field to irrigate onion crop by means of traditional hand-operated ‘Tenda’.

But due to inadequate storage facilities, absence of market network and lack of government intervention, area under onion cultivation is not increasing substantially.

For instance, despite feasibility to cultivate onion on 15,000 hectares in Kalahandi district, the area under cultivation is only around 4,000 to 5,000 hectare at present.