A hopeful mother starts a buffalo husbandry | Milaap
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A hopeful mother starts a buffalo husbandry business

Written by Chandana Publish date 11-May-2016
Shobha with her buffalo
Shobha with her buffalo

I reached Shobha Dodamani’s home in Mekhali in the hot sun of mid-day. We (Me and the MASS field staff Kashavva) found Shobha lounging on a charpai on her patio. Her house was surrounded by acres and acres of agricultural plots and we had to park our vehicles out on the road and walk for a kilometre to reach there. After sending her grand daughter to fetch us some tea, Shobha greeted us warmly. She had a cozy two room hut - a kitchen and a living room with a wonderful patio that overlooked the agricultural field. She lives with her husband and son, though when I met her, her grand daughter was visiting for the summer holidays. 

Shobha and her husband toil in the fields all day, doing backbreaking work for a very low wage of Rs. 70 everyday. Though they own an agricultural plot, it has been barren for almost two years now due to the severe drought they are facing in the region. The opportunities for daily wages is also getting scarce by the day. They could earn hardly Rs. 3,500 a month and it wasn’t enough to sustain the family. So, Shobha decided to start an animal husbandry to supplement her income. 

Shobha took a loan from MASS (Mahila Abhivruddhi mattu Samrakshana Samsthe), a micro-financing field partner of Milaap. Clubbing the loan amount with her personal savings, she bought a buffalo for Rs. 31,000. She feeds the buffalo dried fodder and leftovers from the day before. The buffalo gives around 3 litres of milk everyday. Shobha saves some milk for her son and sells the rest in the local dairy. She has been able to earn around Rs. 400 every week with the buffalo. With this additional income, she is able to send her son to school and although saving money still seems far-fetched, she has repaid the loan and is living comfortably.

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