Also:
Meet a Vermicomposter from Ganadulu Village | Meet a Vermicomposter from Boranakanive Village | Vermicomposting Project |
Vermicomposting Training Manual | DA Activities in Tumkur District

Meet a Vermicomposter from Boranakanive Village

"I had to work in somebody's house as a labourer to earn my living."

Shardamma is a forty year old woman from the village Boranakanive. She is a Hindu in the Vokkaliga caste. Shardamma's parents worked as labourers and from a young age Shardamma joined them. She said, "my father had passed away when I was till very young. I had to work in somebody's house as a labourer to earn my living."

Social Context

"I alone had to earn and feed the family."

Like most girls in the area, Shardamma's family arranged her marriage at a young age. She recalls, "I married at fifteen and entered my husbands home. Here also I had to earn my living by working as a coolie [labourer]." Shardamma has three children, two boys and a girl.

Recalling the beginning of her married life she says, "When I married, my husband was not working. I alone had to earn and feed the family. I used to get Rs 2 per day as wages. I was not getting work regularly. I used to collect cow dung and sell dung cakes to earn our livelihood." "Later," she says, "I worked for six months of the year as a labourer. I can earn Rs 20 per day. This is the rate for female labourers. My son earns Rs 30 per day. This is the rate for male labourers. We would work for three or four days in a week."

"A few years back," Shardamma says, "I got a loan from the bank and purchased a buffalo. The bank had given us two loans each worth Rs 3000. We cleared our bank loan six months ago. I decided to buy a buffalo because it is easy to rear a buffalo in comparison with sheep and we get more dung with a buffalo."

Like most village families one of the biggest economic hurdles Shardamma faces is paying her daughters dowry. Again, like most families, her only option was to take a loan. She says, "We took Rs 40 000. We will clear the rest of the loan in two years. We borrowed the money from large farmers and the bank."

Project Beginnings

"We did not expect people to come and buy vermicompost. We did not expect that this would happen, but we started selling it to people who wanted to try."

When DA approached Shardamma to join the vermicomposting project she says, "I had not been aware of such an enterprise earlier. But we thought that we should give it a try." Describing the process she says, "They [DA] put in the vermicomposting pit and we created a shade for it and collected biomass (green leaves) and dung."

Like many of the entrepreneurs Shardamma had some difficulties in the beginning. She recalls, "500 worms died because we had added the green biomass and dung too soon. We understood only after we had produced compost."

In the beginning, she was somewhat skeptical of the attributes of vermicompost. She recalls, "We did not expect people to come and buy vermicompost. We did not expect that this would happen, but we started selling it to people who wanted to try."

Project Impact

"I earn about RS 700 per month in profit. Working as a labourer I would only earn Rs 180 per month."

Today Shardamma is successfully running her own vermicompost micro-enterprise. She says, "Vermicomposting is not difficult at all. It is three hours of work for three days a week only. We have never felt that it is difficult. I collect about 40 kilograms of waste in a day. I earn about Rs 700 per month in profit (even after I minus my time, which I cost at Rs 20 per hour). Working as a labourer I would only earn Rs 180 per month."

"We got very good training," Shardamma says. "The [DA] representatives visit every day. They also bring customers for vermicompost and we are getting business."

Shardamma has developed a strong entrepreneurial spirit. She says, "We are continuing this vermicomposting because we are getting money in time. If we sell one cartload of ordinary compost (farmyard manure) we get only Rs 150 but with vermicompost we are earning Rs 700 to 800. We are also interested in doing other businesses."

Moving Towards Sustainable Livelihoods

"In the next five years we would like to buy two acres of land, build a house, and buy one more buffalo. We think we can achieve all of these dreams."

Like many of the entrepreneurs, Shardamma intends to expand her business with another unit. She is planning to do this by taking a small loan from DA, through a programme established with the Rockefeller foundation. She notes, "We do not intend to take the loan from anybody [other than DA] because they often come and harass us to repay. We will take it from DA. We will pay back the loan by selling vermicompost."

According to Shardamma, life is getting better. She says, "our life style has changed. We used to get very less wages then [in the past]. We had to work only in large farmers' houses. But now we get work in the coffee plantations and also get more wages here [through vermicomposting]. Hence we are more comfortable than in the olden days."

In Shardamma's village two other people are producing compost. Together they have also formed a self help group. Shardamma says a number of other villagers are thinking about starting vermicomposting projects. She adds, "They will also be able to do it if DA provides similar support to them also."

She describes her village, saying, "Our village works together...There is nothing bad about our village. Everyone is good. But they are poor. Women work the most in our village. There are thirty five houses in our village but we are better off than others are because they don't produce vermicompost."

Shardamma has a number of plans for her family. She says, "In the next five years we would like to buy two acres of land, build a house, and buy one more buffalo. We think we can achieve all of these dreams. We didn't have money until now. Now we hope to do all this."

"We will encourage other poor women to take up this activity... We will go to their village and help them."

Now Shardamma and her family want to help teach others the benefits of vermicomposting. She says, "We will encourage other poor women to take up this activity. We will tell them the advantages of doing this and encourage them to take this up. We will go to their village and help them."

Also:
Meet a Vermicomposter from Ganadulu Village | Meet a Vermicomposter from Boranakanive Village | Vermicomposting Project |
Vermicomposting Training Manual | DA Activities in Tumkur District