Meena Devi comes from a modest family where she has four members in her family. Her husband is a science teacher by profession. In the beginning, she was not interested in farming, Leena Sharma wanted to pursue a career in teaching, but after getting her training sessions, her interest in farming developed.
On behalf of the Agriculture Technology Management Agency, she took training in 2018 for 6 days in Natural farming from Padam Shree Shubhash Palekar, Kufri district, Shimla. She is so encouraged by the lectures in her training sessions that she decides to start natural farming. Her husband also encourages her to start organic farming. After gaining knowledge of natural farming, she adopted this method in her farming.
She used various components regularly in natural farming, including ghanjivamrit, jivamrit, agniastra, beejamarit khatti, etc., which helped to produce good crops in the first year. She encouraged other women farmers through her work as they also adopted the same method in their farming.
With her work, she inspired other fellow village farmers to do more in field of agriculture. She also provides training to the farmers of different panchayats so that they can learn and adopt these practices. Additionally, she teaches natural farming at the NSS camps and schools.
Further, she told me, 20 female farmers have joined her work. All these female workers work together, and till now, 80 bighas have been cultivated by them.
During the rabi season, she cultivates Garlic, Peas, French beans, Fenugreek, and coriander, while during the kharif season, she cultivates mash, maize, til, bhindi, soyabean, and kodra. Adopting these practices, has significantly reduced the cost of production, which leads to high-quality products and good productivity. Further, she produced seeds in her field, and later she sold them to farmers for cultivation.
On the recommendation of the Agriculture Department, she received an award for her remarkable contribution to farming from SDM and MLA Karsog on the occasion of Independence Day. The Honourable Vice President of NITI Aayog shared her inspirational story with other farmers in July 2019.