Jhalda Kangsabati Mahila Chasi Producer Company Limited

Jhalda Kangsabati Mahila Chasi Producer Company Limited is a group of women farmers from around Jhalda. We do our administrative work over at Manoj Kumar Saw’s place in Ward No-7, near Bandhaghat. It started because the women here wanted to have more of a say in how our crops are sold. We grow a lot of vegetables and some grains in the fields around the Kangsabati area. It’s hard work, and doing it while taking care of families is even tougher. We don't have a polished business setup. It’s mostly just us sitting together and figuring out how to get our produce to the market. Manoj helps us with the legal bits and the paperwork that we find difficult. We share what we know about the soil and the seeds. It’s not a big operation with lots of money. We’re just trying to improve our lives a little bit at a time. The walk to the fields is long, but we go together. We don't use fancy marketing. We just show the quality of what we grow. It’s a practical thing for us. Sometimes the weather ruins a crop and we have to start over. That’s just how farming goes. We’re proud of what we do, even if it’s just small-scale.