Jharkhand Woman Farmer Turns Climate Risk Into Rs 15 L Livelihood

Every farming season used to begin the same way for Priyanka Kumari. She would step into her fields in Jharkhand’s Gola block, look at the soil beneath her feet, and then instinctively glance upwards.

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The sky decided everything.

Too much rain could flatten crops overnight. Too little could drain the colour and weight from vegetables meant for the market. Weeks of labour often rested on a forecast that changed without warning. “For us, farming always came with fear,” Priyanka says. “We worked hard, but we never knew what the outcome would be.”

Seven years ago, when Priyanka, now 27, took up farming full-time after her marriage, this uncertainty was simply accepted as part of life. Agriculture was the family’s only livelihood. There was no backup plan.

Working hard, earning little

Priyanka and her husband were not unfamiliar with education. She trained as a primary teacher. He holds a BTech in engineering. Yet their reality remained tied to traditional farming practices that demanded constant labour and investment, with returns that shifted from season to season.

Today, their five-member household works together on the farm. While Priyanka oversees planning, labour coordination, and household expenses, her husband manages market sales, and her in-laws support harvesting and daily farm work.

“We used to invest a lot, but the results were very less,” she recalls. Sudden rainfall often forced early harvesting, which damaged both the quality of produce and its price at the market.

Reena Kumari, a practitioner with Transform Rural India (TRI), had seen this story repeat itself across villages in Jharkhand. “People were using old techniques, wasting water, and using pesticides carelessly,” Reena explains. “They got production, but not the right price.”

The issue ran deeper than weather. Most farmers planted the same crops at the same time. “When all the produce reached the market together, rates fell sharply,” she says. “People were producing, but they weren’t earning.”

Priyanka felt this pressure every season. The work never stopped, but the income rarely felt secure.

The day farming stopped being guesswork

In 2016, when TRI began working in Jharkhand’s Gola block, its teams started with community meetings through self-help groups and village organisations. They were not looking for the biggest landowners. They were looking for farmers willing to think differently.

Priyanka’s name came up early. “She wanted to learn,” says Bapi Gorai, who is a specialist (farm prosperity) at TRI. “She was ready to plan.”

What followed was not a quick solution, but a long conversation. “We sat with the family and mapped everything,” Bapi explains. “What land they have, which crop suits which plot, when to sow, when to harvest, what the expenses will be, and what the market demand looks like.”

Only after this planning did TRI introduce the idea of protected cultivation. A polyhouse or net house, Bapi explains, allows farmers to control temperature and humidity, reduce disease, improve quality, and grow crops even outside their usual seasons.

For Priyanka, the idea felt distant from her reality.

“At first, we thought we would get only 75 percent subsidy and the rest we would have to pay,” she says. The fear was immediate and financial.

The turning point came in 2022, when TRI helped the family navigate government schemes. “We got to know it is free and won’t cost money,” Priyanka says. “That is when we agreed to install it.”

‘We had never seen this in our village’

Even then, confidence took time.

“They had never seen such a structure in Gola,” Reena recalls. “There was fear.”

So TRI organised an exposure visit to the Angara block, where protected cultivation was already in practice. “We showed them how it works and conducted a three-day residential training,” Reena says. “That exposure changed things.”

Training continued well beyond the visit. Priyanka’s husband learnt how to sow seeds inside the net house. During the lockdown, online sessions followed.

“It was a free krishi vidya (agricultural science) training,” Priyanka says.

Alongside technical skills, TRI focused on habits many small farmers never had the chance to develop: record-keeping, market timing, and cost planning. “We explain everything clearly,” Bapi says. “Advantages, costs, disadvantages. We also visit fields regularly.”

When panic gave way to planning

The first real test came with a hailstorm.

“The crop inside was safe,” Priyanka says. “Outside, people lost everything.”

She noticed the difference immediately. Fewer insects. Healthier vegetables. Better quality.

Slowly, her daily routine began to change. “We wake up at 4 am and plan the whole day,” she says. The family manages 12 to 15 acres of farmland, of which 10 decimals are under protected cultivation. The remaining land continues under open farming, supported in parts by drip irrigation. Every sowing decision is written down. Every sale is reviewed.

“Before sowing, we note how much we are investing. After selling, we calculate the return,” Priyanka explains.

Dinner conversations now revolve around market gaps. “If a product is not available on other farms, we plant that,” Priyanka says. “That way, we get better profits.”

Inside the protected structure, she focuses on off-season vegetables like bottle gourd, tomatoes, and brinjal.

Bapi gives a simple example. “Priyanka grew bottle gourd, which is usually a summer crop, in winter,” he says. “And she earned Rs 20 per kg instead of Rs 5.”

She also began raising vegetable saplings for other farmers, turning the same structure into another source of income.

Watching life change, season by season

The numbers tell their own story. “Earlier, our income was around Rs 2 to 2.5 lakh a year,” Priyanka says. “Now it is between Rs 13 and 15 lakh.”

Within three to four months of installing the net house, she began noticing higher production. The improvement in quality and quantity soon reflected in better prices and steadier income.

But the bigger change lies elsewhere.

Her husband, once uncertain about staying in farming, now sees it differently. “He thought that if he took up a job, he would have to work under someone,” Priyanka says. “Here, we manage our own time.”

Farming brought autonomy. And pride.

From learner to guide

The impact soon moved beyond her own fields. “By supporting farmers regularly, Priyanka gained confidence,” Reena says. “Now she shares knowledge freely.”

Farmers from nearby villages now call her before sowing. They ask about crops, pests, and market timing. “People watch how we farm,” Priyanka says. “If they face problems, they call us.”

Safe to say, her farm has become a reference point.

‘We want to see millionaire farmers’

For TRI, Priyanka represents what becomes possible when women farmers are trusted and equipped. “Our vision is to create agri-entrepreneurs,” Reena says.

“In the next five years, we want to see millionaire farmers,” Bapi adds. “Especially women.” The reason is simple. “If you go to the fields, you will see women doing most of the work,” he says. “They commit fully.”

Recently, Priyanka was nominated for the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s (ICAR) Millionaire Farmer recognition. For her, it marked how far she had travelled from years when each farming season felt uncertain.

That distance is visible in how she works today. Her future now sits in her planning register, shaped by seasons she understands and protected by choices she made with care.

For Priyanka Kumari, farming has stopped being a gamble. It has become a livelihood she can trust. Standing inside her polyhouse today, she no longer looks to the sky with fear.

All images from the Transform Rural India team.