Jay Mangal Mahila Farmer Producer Company Limited

Our little group is over in Bankati, Basti. We work out of Ram Kishun’s place in Pankhobari. We are all women from around here who decided it was better to pool our resources together as a farmer producer company. Life in the village is pretty straightforward, and our work reflects that. We spend our mornings in the fields and our afternoons trying to figure out the business side of things. It’s a lot of learning on the go. We don’t have a big staff, just us and whoever is around to help move the heavy stuff. Sometimes we struggle with the paperwork, but we manage. The main thing is that we are looking out for each other. Whether it is buying seeds in bulk or finding a way to get our produce to the market without spending too much on transport, we just talk it through. We don’t have a polished office with air conditioning. It is just a regular house where we gather to make decisions. The Basti weather can be brutal, so we work when we can. We aren't trying to be the biggest company out there. We just want to make sure the women in our community can keep their farms going. If you come to visit, you’ll see we are just ordinary people doing our best with what we have. It’s practical, local work, and we like it that way even when things get stressful. We just take it one day at a time.