Background: Gopal Dhali is a 64-year-old marginal farmer residing at Bollartop village in the Basanti Block of South 24 Parganas District. He is the primary breadwinner for his family of six members. His main source of income comes from cultivating paddy on his 2-bigha small plot of land.

Challenges Faced: As a marginal farmer, his livelihood was dependent on only paddy cultivation which had its limitations. Gopal faced challenges to manage their family survivals with little income from single crop.

Intervention: Gopal became a member of a Farmers Group under the Alternative Livelihood Project. He participated regular meetings conducted by the project personnel which motivates him to gained valuable insights into multi-cropping techniques.

Support provided: On 17th October, 2023, he received a packet of seeds with 12 varieties of vegetable from Palli Unnayan Samiti Baruipur. Inspired by the project’s ideas, Gopal cultivate the vegetables alongside his paddy crop. He has a very good harvesting of verities of vegetables. An additional source of income makes smooth to the way of their survivals.

Results: By integrating vegetable cultivation into his agricultural practices, Gopal successfully fulfilled his family’s daily vegetable requirements. Additionally, he earned a significant income of 7000 rupees by selling surplus vegetables in the market. The introduction of multi-cropping not only improved Gopal’s economic situation but also enhanced the overall well-being of his family. The additional income from vegetable sales provided financial stability and resilience against the uncertainties of relying solely on paddy cultivation.

Feedback:Gopal expressed his sincere gratitude to Palli Unnayan Samiti Baruipur and Manos Unidas for this support. He credited the success of his agricultural transformation to the knowledge gained through the project and the distribution of variety vegetable seeds.