Lokraja Rajarshi Shahu Mahila Farmer Producer Company Limited

We started this thing here in Balinga, which is a small part of Karveer in Kolhapur. Most of us are women from the local farms nearby. Our office is actually at Shri Madhukar Jambale’s house at number 970. It’s not a big fancy office building or anything like that. We just needed a place to get together and figure out how to handle our crops better. Being in Maharashtra, agriculture is what most of us know. It gets busy during the harvest season. We talk a lot about the prices and the soil and what the weather is doing to the seeds this year. It’s hard work, especially for the ladies balancing the fields and the home life. We formed this group, Lokraja Rajarshi Shahu Mahila Farmer Producer Company Limited, because it seemed like the right way to do things as a team. We didn't want to just keep working alone and getting poor rates. Sometimes we sit around the porch at the Balinga address and just look at the paperwork. None of us are experts at the business side, but we are learning as we go. We focus on the local produce from the Kolhapur area. It’s a lot of back and forth with the transporters and the markets. We keep it simple. If someone needs help with their harvest, we try to see what the group can do. It’s just how things are done here in the village. We aren't trying to be the biggest company, just trying to make it work for everyone.