BABITA FULFILS HER DREAM TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL LIVESTOCK OWNER BY USING RELIANCE FOUNDATION'S INFORMATION SERVICES

Bhubaneswar(04/10/2023): Babita Sahoo (36), a successful and experienced farmer pursuing cattle rearing and agriculture, resides in the Hatianali village of Balipata Gramme Panchayat in the Chhendipada block of Angul district of Odisha.

Babita is a beneficiary of the Digital Farm School, which the Reliance Foundation launched in July 2022 with 150 farmers from Chhendipada block in the district. She has used each new piece of information she has learned to date, along with the information services provided by Reliance Foundation Information Services (RFIS), to become a very successful integrated farmer.

She belongs to a family of six members.

Owing to poverty, she could not study beyond Class 10 and was married at a young age.

After getting married in a farmer's house, she got gradually involved in farming.

Since then, she continued farming even in the present scenario where many farmers feel that farming is not profitable any more, due to pests and diseases, increasing cost of production, stagnation of crop yields, and others. Babita owns more than 0.5 acre of land, where she produces paddy and seasonal vegetables integrated with cattle rearing. Babita came across Reliance Foundation’s information service products for livelihoods and tollfree helpline number 1800 419 8800 from a RFIS promotional card during July 2022.

Gradually, she came in contact with RFIS district programme implementation staff.

Since then, she has been consulting with the livelihoods experts over helpline at the time of her requirement. Moreover, she also uses other platforms.

Farming was their main livelihood and along with it her family kept a cow and a few goats.

Babita has a constant curiosity about new farming techniques and how they can improve domestic animal husbandry and traditional farming.

She always wanted to earn a decent income from livestock also.

For this as a house-wife, she decided to start dairy to assist economically to her family.

Now they have one Red sindhi milch cow with a calf and nine Black Bengal goats.

Her cow was yielding very less milk and last year the cow and goat were affected with FMD and skin diseases.

Last year out of 12 goats, 3 goats, died due to above diseases, which disappointed her and she decided to quit animal husbandry.

But she gradually began to see a glimmer of hope after joining Reliance Foundation and using the professional advice offered here.

According to the expert's recommendations, the rest of the goats are doing great and the reminder of the cow's health is excellent.

The amount of milk the cow produces is also increasing.

Babita discovered a sore on the cow's udder in March 2023, which caused the cow to produce only 3 liters of milk each day.

Earlier, the cow used to give four to five liters of milk every day.

The average price of milk in surrounding markets is Rs.50 per liter.

As a result, her monthly gross income decreased by about Rs.3000.

Through the helpline and WhatsApp group, she received the required prescription guidance from the veterinary specialist.

Accordingly, Babita sent a picture of udder-sore of her cow through a WhatsApp group, and the expert offered advice.

When the milk yield once more climbed to 5 liters per day after a week, she saw the anticipated results.

She is selling milk for Rs.50 per liter, as previously mentioned, making a gross monthly income of Rs.7500. Meanwhile, on 08-07-2023 an animal health camp was being organized by Reliance Foundation in Hatianali village where she vaccinated her animals and received some freely distributed medicines, vitamins and mineral mixture.

Later, she participated in an audio conference organized by Reliance Foundation.

She learnt how to take care of the cattle and what to feed them during the rainy season, and using those, she is seeing much better health of animals this year than in previous years.

After getting veterinary benefits from RFIS, Babita says, “Animal health is the biggest challenge I am dealing with when raising cattle, among many others.

Previously, I was unable to obtain advice from veterinarians whenever I needed it.

However, I am very much benefited from the Reliance Foundation Information Services and digital farm school, particularly the helpline.

It has been demonstrating that farmers can easily make money if they receive timely information from reliable sources.

Now, I am aware about vaccinations and cattle management.

I thank the Foundation for its support at my difficult times".