33-yr-old lady farmer, man growing strawberries in Vidarbha felicitated

Nagpur: This lady farmer can be an inspiration to farmers and widows of farmers who have committed suicide. Sunanda Salotkar, a 33-year-old lady from Kalmeshwar, has been working her agricultural fields, by learning about horticulture and vegetable cops for the last 20 years. She has comfortably met the daily needs of her big family. What makes Sunanda more inspirational is that she has taken her entire family’s responsibility after her father’s death, and gone on to get her three younger sisters settled in life with earnings from the farm.
Sunanda and Hingna-based farmer Savi Thangavel, who is known for growing strawberries and dates despite the district’s hot temperature, were honoured with the Vasantrao Naik Prayogshil Shetkari Puraskar, instituted jointly by Vasantrao Naik Foundation and Lok Garjana Pratishtan. HMT rice innovator Dadaji Khobragade and president of Lokmanch Anil Killor felicitated Sunanda and Thangavel by presenting them the award at a programme held at Dhanwate Hall on Wednesday.
President of Lok Garjana Pratishtan Ajay Patil, corporator Pragati Patil and president of Vasantrao Naik Foundation Nilay Naik were present.
Revealing her struggles over the years, Sunanda told TOI, “I am a relieved person now, as I successfully got all my three younger sisters married. In fact, my youngest sister got married in March this year.”
Sunanda had to sacrifice herself to be able to do all this. She herself did not get married since the burden of the entire family fell on her shoulders at the age of just 16 after her father’s death. “I was totally ignorant when my father died. All our relatives started to neglect us. I had no option but to leave my education in spite of scoring 75% in SSC. I aspired to become a nurse, but had to start working on the 6.5 acres land left by my father. A bigger problem facing my family was a debt of Rs4.50 lakh. However, I never looked back once I started working on my farm, and overcame all the problems life threw at me only through the earnings from agriculture,” she said.
Sunanda cultivates cotton, soyabean, vegetables and four-five varieties of fruits. Over the years, she has had to take many efforts to increase irrigation potential on her agriculture land.
Similarly, Thangavel is a role model for horticulture farming. Despite the fact that strawberry and dates do not grown in the region, he managed to do it through his experimenting nature and dedication towards agriculture.
Inspired by the two farmers, Khobragade said, “Sunanda went on to overcome all odds and never thought of committing suicide. Sunanda also set an example that women can also excel in farming sector,” he said.
He also appreciated the efforts of Thangavel and condemned the state government for not providing any financial assistance and facilitating schemes for farming of fruits like strawberry and dates.
Killor said the public should question the government about public funds, especially those shown to have been spent on agriculture. “Most of the government funds do not reach the end users due to large scale corruption. Most government funds are utilized for Western Maharashtra. Vidarbha farmers are left to face all kinds of problems, so many have no option but to end their lives. All citizens of Vidarbha should unite and come to the rescue of Vidarbha farmers,” he said.
(Reporting by Shakti Singh)