Enriching Women Entrepreneurship through Custom Hiring Centre

The promotion of women entrepreneurship programme was taken up in Srirampur village of Balipatana block under Khordha District through establishment of Custom Hiring Centres.Under the banner of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the inauguration of two custom hiring centres was organized on 9th June 2023 with two Women Self Help Groups (WSHGs) under Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) program.The goal for establishing the CHCs is to enrich the women entrepreneurs through various machineries, tools and implements provided to them through ICAR-CIWA. It further aims to promote positive attitude towards entrepreneurship among the farming community specially among women farmers. The machineries, tools and other implements provided will strengthen the morale and motivate the women farmers to take up various works like preparation of spices, its packaging, value addition. It will also enhance the earning capability by renting the machineries for flour making, rice mill, chaff cutter, power weeder, etc. The women involved various works under the CHCs will be able to attain economic stability, acquired skill set for operating the machineries leading them to social mainstream. It will enable them to be self-reliant (Atmanirbhar) and self-sufficient. Representatives of line departments were also part of the program, and have assured full cooperation and support to the women farmers. Marketing of processed products will also be provided with much needed support from the concerned line departments but also cautiously advised the women farmers for the quality of the products and the packaging which will not only help them to export the produces to other states but also to other countries. Dr. Lipi Das Principal Scientist ICAR-CIWA briefly spoke about the concept of Custom Hiring Centre, the innovative approach for bringing Socio-Techno-Economic changes among the women farmers. Dr. Bishwanath Sahoo, Principal Scientist ICAR-CIWA emphasized on increased cattle count in the village and shared about the benefits of scientific feeding of cattles. Sarpanch Smt. Kabita Kandi and Samiti Savya of Nariso Gram Panchayat, Chairman Maheera FPO Kumudini Swain, Director Maheera FPO Tushar Kant Pradhan, Marketing Manager of Maheera FPO and newly appointed Probationary Agriculture Scientists from ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad were also present at the event and gave their support and enlightened the participating women farmers. The program ended with a vote of thanks.