Can cow dung become a source of income? Durga Maida shows the path to self‑reliance

By Vikas Meshram* 
In the Sailana block of Ratlam district lies the small village of Govardhanpura. This is where Durga Maida lives with her husband and four daughters. Their livelihood depended on just one bigha of land—far too little to feed a family of six. Growing enough grain for the year was impossible, and even meeting daily expenses was a constant struggle. Alongside farming, Durga kept livestock and took up wage labour whenever she could. Hard work was never lacking, but income always was. Month after month, the accounts failed to balance, forcing her to borrow. Looking back, Durga says those days felt heavy and hopeless; farming offered no promise, and there was no sign of change. Her story mirrored the reality of almost every small farmer in the area.
Everything began to shift the day VAAGDHARA facilitator Divya Sharma invited her to join the Saksham Samuh (Empowerment Group). Durga started attending the monthly meetings, where she learned new practices—organic farming, preparing manure from cow dung, proper seed handling, and setting up a nutrition garden. When the discussion turned to dung‑based manure and dung cakes, childhood memories resurfaced. She remembered how elders once applied cow dung to fields, producing excellent crops, but the practice had faded over time. In that moment, a thought struck her: cow dung, if used wisely, could become a source of income.
That idea changed her life.
Durga decided to make full use of the livestock she already had—four buffaloes and two cows. Instead of using the milk only at home, she began making and selling ghee, curd, and buttermilk, creating a small but steady daily income. Then she turned to what most people considered waste: cow dung. Durga started making dung cakes. Her first batch of 1,000 cakes sold to a nearby brick kiln at ₹5 per piece, earning her ₹5,000. Today, making dung cakes has become her daily work, bringing in nearly ₹5,000 every month.
Alongside this new income, Durga transformed her farming practices. She began applying dung‑based manure to her fields, which strengthened the soil and improved crop quality. She explains that cow‑dung manure helps retain moisture, enhances soil fertility, and reduces farming costs. She also shifted to indigenous seed varieties suited to local conditions. To protect them, she stores seeds with neem leaves and ash, creating her own small seed bank. The results are visible across her life—better yields, increased daily earnings from milk products, and a new identity in the village as a woman who turned waste into wealth.
Around the same time, she set up a nutrition garden near her field, growing seasonal vegetables and a few fruit trees. The benefits reached her family’s plate directly: improved nutrition and reduced spending on vegetables. Durga now says with confidence that the cow dung they once threw away has become a pillar of her livelihood. Hard work and the right thinking turned it into income. Her dream is that every woman in the village should stand on her own feet and depend on no one.
VAAGDHARA’s grassroots work demonstrates how traditional knowledge and modern understanding can come together to create sustainable livelihoods. The Saksham Samuh encourages women to look at familiar things with fresh eyes. Cow dung—once central to farming but sidelined after chemical fertilisers arrived—is again emerging as a support for both farmers’ income and soil health. In regions like Sailana, where landholdings are tiny and scarcity is constant, such innovations show how farming can become profitable even on small plots.
In villages like Govardhanpura, land is divided generation after generation, leaving families with shrinking farms. Many men migrate to cities for work, leaving women to manage both home and field. In this context, women like Durga Maida earning income from resources already at home is not just an economic shift—it is social change. When one woman proves that her household can improve through her own labour and livestock, others gain courage to try something new. Since joining the group, Durga herself has changed. Once a quiet participant, she now speaks confidently, advises other women, and shares her experience.
Durga Maida’s journey shows that when thought moves in the right direction and effort continues without pause, nothing is too small or too worthless. The cow dung once overlooked has become the backbone of her livelihood. This seemingly ordinary woman of Govardhanpura has become a symbol of hope—proof that the road to self‑reliance can begin right at one’s doorstep.
---
*Contact: vikasmeshram04@gmail.com