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Maya Prakashan, an NREGA worker and a resident of Karumalloor panchayat in Ernakulam, has always dabbled in cultivating vegetables and bananas in her backyard. They would either be sold in the neighbourhood shops or at local fairs. But in the last year, she has become a diligent farmer, multitasking between NREGA work as well as small-scale commercial cultivation of horticulture crops.

In the neighbouring Veliyathunadu, Rajani Muralidharan, a housewife who grew vegetables on her 40 cents, has now scaled up her farm and has even leased out a patch of land for growing greens.

They have never been categorized as farmers before, and neither did they feel that they were. But, today, they are part of a unique group of 400 women, who have established the Alangadan brand that sells farm and value-added products.

As shareholders in the organization registered as Alangadan Farmer Producer Company Limited (AFPCL), farming is now a serious business for them. The farmer-producer organization taps into their aggregated strengths and, with its business plan, covers the entire end-to-end value chain, including those of production, marketing, and value addition. “This Onam, we are all involved in selling our first products—both farm products as well as value-added products,” said Veena Rajendran, CEO of AFPCL.

The chairperson of AFPCL, Raji Narayanan, uses a patch of land around a temple owned by her family for cultivation. “A couple of months ago, I had 24 cows and some farmland. But if workers don’t turn up, it is difficult to manage milk distribution. So, now, I focus on the cultivation of bananas, vegetables, and flowers,” she said.

“All of us are harvesting little by little. I have sold ladies’ fingers, long beans, tapioca, and flowers. I started about three months ago but did not think of Onam as such, and I have sold around 60kg of vegetables in the past couple of days,” said Maya, one of the women in the collective.

There are many who have ventured into floriculture. Since Alangad is on the banks of the Periyar River, they haven’t faced any difficulty getting water yet, despite the scanty rains. “This year, we seriously invested in marigold cultivation. They have flowered, and I have to harvest now because I won’t get this market price after Onam,” said Rajani.

“The light and medium rainfall has been advantageous for these farmers. Intense rainfall causes more damage,” said Shoji Edison, agriculture scientist at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, CMFRI, who has been advising them on crop management. “They are ensured better prices as there are no middlemen. If they are buying seeds, a hundred of them can buy them together at a much lower price. FPCs basically aim for profit maximization for stakeholders through effective interventions in input management,” he added. To be a part of the company. The membership fee is Rs 600 and each member has 200 shares of Rs 10 each. They get guidance in trading, marketing, agri-business training, and procuring seedlings and saplings.

As the company is registered under Bharath Agro Processing and Marketing Co-operative Ltd, a multistate cooperative, they can buy from similar FPOs in other states. This is under the Centre’s Small Farmers Agri-business Consortium (SFAC). “Under the scheme, we get an equity grant of the total we have put in. We have received Rs 9 lakh from the Centre. The condition was such that we had to get more than 300 members in six months, but we have enrolled 432 members in one month,” said Raji.

What is even more interesting is that most of these women do not know each other, and they haven’t gathered in one place for a meeting yet. “We meet at the local level. We have members who are housewives, NREGA workers, office-goers, Kudumbashree workers, etc,” said Veena.

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