Mrs. Suki Sabar is a mother of three children of Bahadapodar (Guchaguda) village of Goudagatha Gram Panchayat, Ganjam district, Odisha. Amidst poverty stricken life, her husband as the head of the family hardly supports Mrs. Suki Sabar and contributes for the family subsistence as he is addicted to alcohol and most of the time goes to metropolitan cities as migrant labour. In this life of tragedy, she used to toil hard to bring up her children as a daily labour.

SWAD through the “Sustainable Livelihood Enhancement” initiative promoted women farmers in the area. To start with, the initiative encouraged women to initiate kitchen garden for nutritional and organic food for the family to consume and sell the surplus. Mrs. Suki Sabar showed her interest along with her wage labour. With the help of the project staff, she planted vegetable in her backyard small patch of land and regularly took care of the plants until they yielded. She was overjoyed by seeing the volume of vegetable production. She then was deciding to distribute and share the vegetable with her neighbours which the project staff discouraged. Having enough for her family, she took the surplus to the nearby market to sell. To her surprise, no sooner she started to sell, all the vegetables were sold. Thereafter, she used to pluck and sell the vegetable everyday without going for work. She also expanded her cultivation through different produces grown in the fields. Now, she employs others for plantation and harvesting. Besides this, she collects non-timber forest produces like tamarind, mohua flower and seeds and sells in the nearby Badagada market during off seasons.

She expresses saying that she can save little money for future too. She sends her daughter to school and two other younger sons to Anganwadi Centre for education. She also is helps her husband with medicines. Despite all hurdles spent earlier, the present situation of the family is contented with whatever they have now.

She as an emerging women farmer thanks SWAD for leading her life from hopelessness to hopeful life and remains ever grateful to all supports for her changed life.