The Vagad region of Rajasthan, encompassing the districts of Banswara and Dungarpur, is a land of rich biodiversity, fertile soil, and plentiful water, deeply intertwined with the cultural identity of the Bhil community. Yet, for decades, unsustainable farming practices had silently eroded this natural wealth, shrinking crop yields and deepening the grip of poverty.
Against this backdrop, a quiet revolution is taking root. It is being led by women like Kamla Devi of Hanumanpura village in Banswara’s Ghatol block, and Raju Bai of Biluda village in Dungarpur’s Sabla area. One has breathed new life into her village’s agriculture by safeguarding indigenous seeds; the other has cultivated a thriving plant nursery, providing a reliable, year-round source of income for her family and community.
Their stories are a testament to the transformative power of grassroots mobilization. It was here that the organisation Vaagdhara began its work, aiming to build tribal community institutions that offer sustainable livelihoods by blending scientific and indigenous knowledge, while securing education and nutrition for children. This vision rests on three pillars: true farming, true childhood, and true democracy.
The vehicle for this vision is the *Saksham Samuh* (Saksham groups). Women across many villages formed these collectives to move toward self-reliance, significantly reducing their families' dependence on migrant labour. The effort is beautifully anchored in *Halma*, an old tribal tradition where the entire community comes together as volunteer labour for a shared task.
The Seed Keeper of Hanumanpura
Born into a family where tradition outweighed a daughter’s dreams, Kamla Devi was married into a farming household at just thirteen. Household responsibilities and rigid social expectations soon closed the doors to formal education. Yet, her yearning to learn and contribute to society never faded.
Her husband, Kantilal Maida, stood by her at every turn. Together, they managed their small farm, supplementing their income with daily-wage labour during lean seasons. That enduring resilience found a new channel in 2019, when Vaagdhara launched a Saksham group in Hanumanpura. Its aim was to steer the village toward traditional farming and *swaraj* (self-rule), reducing dependence on volatile external markets. Kamla Ben, as she is affectionately known, embraced it not as charity, but as a profound opportunity. She immersed herself in learning about seed conservation, composting, animal husbandry, and soil health.
At the time, most farmers in Hanumanpura relied on monoculture, a practice that was steadily draining the land’s fertility and capping their incomes. Kamla Ben challenged this norm. On her small plot, she began cultivating a vibrant mosaic of vegetables, grains, medicinal plants, and indigenous crops. She replaced chemical fertilisers with nutrient-rich manure crafted from cow dung, neem, and other local materials.
Her dedication soon yielded tangible results. Farming, which once barely met her household’s subsistence needs, now generates over ₹6,000 every month through the sale of diverse produce. Witnessing this success, other farmers in the village began to take notice.
Kamla Ben recognized the most fundamental, yet most neglected, link in agriculture: the seed. Understanding that the scarcity of quality indigenous seeds was the village’s biggest hurdle, she began collecting and safeguarding them. Today, she holds a remarkable repository of indigenous varieties, including pearl millet, sorghum, black gram, chickpea, green gram, maize, kodra, red okra, bottle gourd, bitter gourd, cluster bean, chilli, tomato, groundnut, turmeric, ginger, and garlic.
She does not merely hoard this genetic wealth; she distributes these seeds to fellow farmers at minimal costs. Consequently, whenever a farmer in Hanumanpura needs seed, Kamla Ben is the first name they seek.
This local effort mirrors a critical global reality. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the world has lost roughly 75% of its plant genetic diversity since 1900, as farmers abandoned local varieties for uniform, high-yielding ones. The FAO notes that a large share of the seeds needed for diverse food crops remains safely in the hands of smallholder farmers, with women playing a leading role in preserving this diversity. Along with the seeds, Kamla Ben is saving the village’s unique flavours, its ancestral understanding of the seasons, and generations of ecological wisdom.
Beyond crops, Kamla Ben has revived traditional medicinal knowledge. Kantilal had inherited knowledge of Ayurvedic herbs from his grandmother, mother, and father. Together, the couple began passing this wisdom on to the village’s women and children. Kamla Ben now teaches women how common plants like tulsi, giloy, navli, neem, drumstick, and turmeric can address everyday ailments, reducing dependence on costly commercial medicines.
Perhaps her greatest achievement, however, is the confidence she has awakened in other women. She mobilized nineteen women to form the *Saksham Mahila Samuh*. Today, these women share responsibilities for seed conservation, composting, and promoting home remedies, actively carrying this knowledge to neighbouring families.
Empowered by this collective, Kamla Ben now regularly attends gram panchayat meetings, openly raising critical issues such as education, women’s health, and sanitation. She has transformed from a marginalized young bride into an active shaper of local policy.
The Nursery Pioneer of Biluda
A short distance away in Dungarpur, amidst the same verdant landscape, Raju Bai of Biluda village (Lembata gram panchayat, Sabla area) is making her own mark, known for her industriousness and eagerness to learn.
In 2019, Vaagdhara formed a Saksham group in the Sabla area to restore traditional farming practices. By 2023, to promote local agroforestry, the organisation began identifying farmers interested in raising saplings, ensuring the community could source plants locally. Raju Bai, already a progressive farmer seeking a steady income, saw the potential. After attending training sessions that highlighted the viability of a nursery, her confidence soared. With her family’s unwavering support, she made her decision.
Raju Bai did not just absorb the training; she executed it with precision. The organisation taught her the intricacies of raising saplings: preparing the right soil mix, managing irrigation, protecting plants from disease, using clean nursery bags, and understanding market dynamics. Starting with cashew, jackfruit, guava, lemon, drumstick, amla, and giloy seeds provided by the organisation, she planted them in carefully prepared bags. Through daily watering, meticulous balancing of sun and shade, and vigilant care, she nurtured over 2,000 healthy plants.
Then came the harvest of her labour. The organisation purchased 1,238 saplings from her, yielding ₹16,000. She sold the remaining thousand or so in her own and neighbouring villages, earning an additional ₹13,000. Her total income from the nursery reached ₹29,000—averaging about ₹13 per plant. This return, generated from little more than bags of soil, seeds, and relentless dedication, was a powerful validation of her technical understanding and hard work.
Previously, her family’s income depended entirely on seasonal farming, leaving them vulnerable to the whims of the weather. The nursery provided a crucial, year-round income stream. Recognizing the local demand for fruit-bearing plants that were otherwise hard to find, Raju Bai’s enterprise served both her household and the broader community.
Determined to make this a family enterprise, she taught her son, Rajkumar, the techniques of sapling cultivation. Rajkumar embraced the work with enthusiasm and, to scale up the operation, ordered a thousand large nursery bags online. This seamless blend of rural agricultural tradition and the digital resourcefulness of a new generation is a sight to behold. For Raju Bai, the venture has become a profound source of self-respect. As she puts it, “Earning through your own hard work is the greatest pride.”
Rooting Change from the Ground Up
The work of Kamla Ben and Raju Bai is distinct—one safeguards seeds, the other raises saplings—yet a powerful common thread binds them. Neither waited for the market or the state to rescue them; instead, they identified their village’s needs and turned them into personal and communal opportunities. Through discipline and hard work, they made these initiatives their own, bolstered by the steadfast support of their families: Kamla Ben’s husband and Raju Bai’s son.
Viewed against the national landscape, these stories carry profound significance. Women constitute nearly 48% of India’s agricultural workforce, yet the Agriculture Census (2015-16) reveals a stark reality: they hold only 13.96% of all operational land holdings and operate just 11.72% of the total agricultural area. In short, the women who sweat the most in the fields own very little of the land. This disparity severely limits their access to credit, government schemes, and formal markets, as a farmer’s identity and eligibility are often tethered to land titles.
This is precisely why collective structures like the Saksham Mahila Samuh are so vital. Analysis suggests that while systemic change in land ownership remains slow, women-led farmer producer organisations and self-help groups can forge an alternative institutional pathway for empowerment. That is exactly what has unfolded in Hanumanpura and Biluda. These groups have provided women with training, mutual support, and a shared platform, enabling them to carve out their own identities as agricultural leaders.
The essence of both stories is the same: real, lasting change rarely arrives with the fanfare of a grand, top-down scheme. It grows from below, from the very roots of society, where a woman sows a seed in a field and nurtures a sapling in a bag. These two women of Vagad have proven that extraordinary transformation is possible, even with limited resources, provided there is a desire to learn, unshakeable self-confidence, and the enduring strength of community support.
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*Contact: vikasmeshram04@gmail.com
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