Araskupa Processing Unit: A Blessing In Disguise

Women Livelihood
By Savvy Soumya Misra
03 Jul, 2023

When we were younger, we were often assigned with the task of going to the atta chakki to get flour. Something most of us did it on our cycles or simply walking to the flour mill. But for the people of Araskupa village in M Rampur block of Odisha’s Kalahandi district it was different. That is until early February this year when a new processing unit was set up by the Ma Sambhaleshwari SHG.

This village with about 40 households is largely a Gond village. Farming and cattle rearing are the main sources of income. “We had to go 15 kms away to a processing unit in Rampur to get our wheat, spices ground. We used to take the bus, pay a fare of Rs 40, then wait in line, and pay Rs 20 per kilo. In case there was no current then we had to return without getting any work done,” said Urmila Dherao.

For paddy it was even more time consuming. A tractor fitted with a huller would come to to the village once a week only if there was a demand from at least 10-15 farmers. It was able to hull about 3-4 quintals in one hour and they would take away the waste or rice hulls.

Through Project Utthan, an Oxfam India-HDFC Bank’s HRDP initiative, a 10-member SHG was provided two machines—a 2-in-1 pulveriser and a huller. The former, fitted with blades of different sizes, is for grinding wheat, turmeric, millets, cumins, chilies and other spices. The latter is the paddy processing unit. Though the huller processes about 1.5 quintals of paddy an hour but it has made paddy processing easily accessible to not just Araskupa but six other neighbouring villages (some of them with very remote homes and no access to electricity). The group was also also provided with a weighing machine and tools for repair and upkeep of the processing units.

The SHG also gets to sell the waste or rice hulls at Rs 9 per kg; they were connected to the waste buyers by Oxfam India. Moreover, the paddy waste is also used as feed for poultry and cattle. The rates for processing are very nominal—turmeric and chilies and other spices are for about Rs 10 per kg, and wheat and millets are for about Rs 5 per kg.

In the first month itself they earned about Rs 1000 from the processing units and Rs 900 from the sale of the rice hulls. Money has been kept aside for exigency; they are open to giving loans both to the SHG members and to those outside of the SHG. “Our interest rates are between 2-5 per cent while the village mahajan takes about 10%,” chipped in Shobangini Bhoi, the president of the Women Farmers Group and a SHG member.

The processing unit has been set up in a 12 feet by 8 feet mud house, which was earlier used for poultry. This is set up in Kanti Bhoi’s house, she is the president of the processing unit. The women were also trained in basic repair and upkeep of the units; a few like Baromati Dherao are more comfortable with the use of tools for repairs. The women take turns to operate the machine.

“While setting up the processing unit, we ensured that the machines were women-friendly, i.e. something they could operate easily. This was important to encourage women to own this unit as this was important for this village and the six others,” said Gurukalyan Nayak, the project lead of the Oxfam India-HDFC project in Kalahandi.

Members of women’s farmer group were chosen to run the unit and it was set up in a house almost on the main street of the village—both these factors have helped spread the word and make it more accessible. Business development trainings are being provided to the women, just in case they plan to expand in the near future.

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