Success story of Molly Sebastian Updated On 2017-12-01
District: Thrissur
Block Panchayath: Ollukkara
Gramapanchayath: Nadathara
Kerala has its own agricultural heritage and Thrissur can claim a better portion of it. When we talk about the agricultural heritage of the district, Nadathara is the name which we can’t replace or avoid. Still there are hundreds of people who took farming as their life. Vegetables are the important crop of the area in which bitter guard has its own place. Nadathara is even famous for its own variety of bitter guard called Nadatharapaval.
Molly Sebastian, a member of migrated Kottayam based agro-family who deviated from the field after she got married to a family which was not much into farming. But later she realized that the meager income of her husband is not sufficient for a successful life which gradually drags them to debts and poverty. In a situation which she realizes that their life is slipping out of them due to these issues and landed into a situation that she needs to do anything and was ready to. At that point of time she takes the call of her life which was there in her blood that of a farmer. When the Kudumbashree NHG comes with the solution for initial investments she was full-fledged for the call primarily in 1998. The initial lone of 5000 from NHG drives her to the present situation of a proud farmer, she recalls.
As per Molly her success was visible when we can see her husband who is unaware of what farming is, was with her as a great support. She gradually gets more income and her standard of life rises and then she is able to do farming on leased land up to 8 acres in 2000. Late she happened to know about the Kudumbashree policies on leased land farming and with the help of then CDS Chairperson Mercy Gopi got financial assistance in 2008, she gained more confidence. Later she registered with Sneha JLG group and started working which made her to be selected as master farmer of the Panchayath. This also raises her farming capacity like bitter guard in 12.5 acre, pea in 2.5 acre, plantain, and some other vegetables in another 2 acres. If we fall in with a small margin loss too, Kudumbashree is there to support and makes sure that we are not falling down with incentives and interest free loans she added.
Her dedication and skills got showcased in 2010 she is successful in the winter farm school for vegetables at Agricultural university, Thrissur. As per Molly if you have a mentality and health to work, farming is always the best option for you. Later her group was following rain fed system, so she will work only for 6 months. But by that time they were able to gain sufficient profit for the year. By bitter guard itself they can make around 50000 profits. Now they are doing farming for one full year. She was a regular face in all farming related events in the district. Till the date she got around 466713 rupees as incentives from Kudumbashree.
Her hard work and dedication was felicitated by Krishibhavan by giving her the best farmer award in 2000, 2008 and 2013and by the government of Kerala by giving Mahilashree award in 2012. She gives all the credits for the almighty to change her life. But we can say without any doubt that these are the success of the hard work, confidence and dedication. She claims with a pride tone that all the best moments of her life like career and education of children, their marriages and even their own house are the sweat from the farm. The pleasure and satisfaction which we get from the farming is always different, she adds.