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Reducing Uncertainty in Rural Lives: The Case of Prodip Rai from Bagherpara
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Prodip Rai is a young farmer who comes from Bagherpara, in the Jessore district. He along with his father and two brothers are known as successful farmers in their area; whenever Prodip is not busy with agricultural work, he increments his income by working as a tailor in his uncles tailoring shop.
His family of 9 owns about 7 bighas of fertile agricultural land in total. On this land, they farm rice, tomatoes, spinach, okra, pepper, bottle gourd, sweet pumpkin and a few other vegetables. Though they are mostly subsistent farmers, they regularly have excess harvest which they sell off.
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As a result, Prodip claims that in the last harvesting season, his family was able to earn in excess of Tk. 40,000 due to their diligence and hard work in ensuring that they have a good harvest. Though they work hard at farming, Prodip says that the life of a farming family is hard—their fate is link inextricably with many factors beyond their control; such as the weather, disease, pest attack and other problems such as these. So when Prodip heard that there was something called e-Krishok at a courtyard meeting organized by the Community Information Center (CIC), which would be able to help farmers with all their agricultural problems in a timely manner, he was intrigued to say the least. Prodip thought that if he would be able to reduce the feeling of uncertainty that is inherent in his life, because of the risks of agriculture, he would be able to plan for the future with a better frame of mind. He decided that he would test out the e-Krishok service to see how it is able to benefit him the next time that he has an issue.
He did not have to wait long before he had an opportunity to try out e-Krishok. Prodip had been farming tomatoes during the winter cropping season. Everything was going as he expected, until one day he noticed that the leaves of the tomatoes were turning red, withering away; this caused the plants to stop growing and the tomatoes would not flower. He quickly went and informed the Brand Promoter of e-Krishok at the CIC, Gopal.
Gopal consulted the agricultural information portal online and then prescribed a solution for Prodip’s problem. Prodip had to purchase a medicine for his tomato crop which he had to use twice, once a week for two weeks. After the first time, Prodip noticed a visible improvement; this encouraged him to continue the treatment into the second week. A few days after the second use of the medicine, he noticed that all the diseased plants were healed. Though the tomatoes which flowered when the plants were diseased did not get better, the new tomatoes which have flowered afterwards are growing normally. Prodip now expects to earn nearly Tk. 8000, after his family retains all the tomatoes that they require for themselves. He will make a tidy Tk. 3000 profit on his Tk. 5000 investment.
Prodip is very happy with the outcome of his tomato problem. His confidence in the e-Krishok agricultural information service has been strengthened as a result of seeing with his own eyes the benefits of getting timely advice and information as and when he requires it. This has started to change his attitude towards “notun notun geyan abong obhiggota”. He now urges all his fellow farmers to go to the CIC with their problems. As for himself, Prodip now wants e-Krishok to provide him with the knowledge farming more lucrative and high yielding crops in the future.
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