The women of Mangalpur village, Bastar area in Chhattisgarh have truly proved the saying "if the intentions are firm, trees can be grown even on stone". The group of women were successful in cultivating papaya on rocky soil worth Rs 40 lakhs. These women are responsible for the formation of the Maa Danteshwari Papai Production Committee. Hemvati Kashyap, secretary of Maa Danteshwari Samiti, says that they did a business of Rs 40 lakh by growing 300 tonnes of papaya in 10 acres. By cultivating papaya, women got a chance to go to Delhi for the first time in a Hawaiian ship. The Chief Minister, Bhupesh Baghel congratulated the women for traveling by air from papaya cultivation to Delhi and earning a profit of Rs 10 lakh in a year while recovering the cost.
The women involved claim that after preparing the areas for planting papaya, additional soil was poured where the plants were to be put. The women began preparing the area in December 2021, and after about one and a half months, they began planting papaya saplings on January 11, 2021. Today, 5500 papaya trees are blooming in an area of 10 acres as a consequence of labor-intensive efforts. There have been 300 tonnes of papaya produced thus far. Intercropping is used to grow vegetables right alongside the papaya in this area.
According to reports, this is where the improved Amina kind of papaya is being grown for the first time, and the fruit is extremely sweet, flavorful, and nutritious.In Delhi's Azadpur Mandi, three consignments of papayas of about five tonnes each have been sold at the rate of Rs 80 per kg. These women have resorted to an automated drip irrigation system to grow these papaya, so that only a suitable amount of water and soluble fertilizer reaches the roots of papaya. Experts say that farming is possible only with the help of drip irrigation technology in rocky soil. Women are using this information for irrigation through the app on their mobile. Productivity has increased manifold with the use of this technology.
Source - First hand research