Women who once shared the lower rungs of agricultural action are increasingly engaging themselves in activities such as driving tractors or operating soil tillers and combined harvesters which were once considered tough and reserved for men.
More than 60 women under the Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) Ernakulam East Federation are getting trained in an array of agricultural activities from using tractors to producing organic fertilizers and running plant nurseries.
Sheeba Eldhos from Koovappady, who has been training women to operate agricultural machinery and equipment for more than a decade, says the MKSP federation helps train women in use of tractors, planters and harvesters. The federation’s activities are spread over nine blocks in Ernakulam district — Angamaly, Koovappady, Kothamangalam, Vazhakulam, Muvattupuzha, Parakkadavu, Pampakuda, Alangad, and Vadavucode-Puthenkurishu.
Farmers in any of the blocks under its area of operation can seek the federation’s training. The spread of the training programme has seen more than a hundred women getting trained in operating tractors and other agriculture machinery.
In the most recent training programme, 20 women in Koovappady grama panchayat completed training in operating tractors. They were trained in two batches for eight days each. The training programme, held at the Kodanad Baselios Public School grounds, is continuing to increase the availability of trained hands at a time when the agricultural sector is witnessing a shortage of manpower.
The group of women under the federation, said Ms. Sheeba Eldhos, is also engaged in running plant nurseries, training in nursery operations and flower farming. Besides, the group is getting ready to launch millet cultivation as part of a Statewide campaign to produce minor cereals in a big way.
