Sarmila Adhikari

Sarmila Adhikari is a 28 years old farmer who lives in the Dadagon’s village. When she began her activity 7 years ago, she was working very hard and she was selling her vegetables at a loss in the village. Her husband’s income allowed the family to live and to pay their children’s school fees with difficulty. Then, she decided to adapt her traditional agricultural methods to other methods, more productive and little by little her lands were giving a better yield until she could finally get profit from it. Last year she heard about the co-operative trough some friends who was already members and they convinced her to join the group. With the support of her family, she borrowed 50 000 rupees to improve the yield of her lands and the quality of her vegetables. To do so, she invested the money in fertilizers and organic seeds which also allowed her to diversify her production. She also gave a part of the loan to her husband and he could improve his shop and increase the variety of his products. Today she earns an average of 25 000 rupees per month and she realizes a monthly profit of 11 000 rupees in average. She grows up many types of vegetables that she sells in Bypass. Every month she has to pay back 5 000 rupees but sometimes she pay back until 10 000 rupees in a month which allows her to compensate the periods of low profit. Thanks to her sense of leadership she became a board member of the co-operative and she also created an account in the co-operative where she saves a part of her profit with a specific amount of money for the future of her two little boys.

Now she wants to make her activity fully organic and open a shop but she is limited by her knowledge in organic farmer and she hope trainings will be available soon.