“When I started the Krishi farm it was not well recognized like other enterprises. People questioned why spend such huge amount for farming. I also used to feel shy when people asked me about my profession,” shares Ms. Sumitra Rana who runs an agriculture farm.

Rana started her Krishi Farm with her husband’s support. She convinced her husband not to go abroad and spent the entire amount he would have expended for the purpose in building tunnels and planting vegetables. The neighbors and relatives kept telling her that she had made a mistake by not sending her husband abroad and asking him to stay back to support her in her farming.

As majority of rural households in Nepal rely on agriculture to make their ends meet, her family also used to do farming traditionally. She registered the business and opted to run the farm commercially, following a systematic and scientific approach. Before starting the Krishi Farm, Sumitra used to work as an accountant in a nearby school.

She says proudly, “Being an entrepreneur earned me recognition even at the district level and also in my society.” When asked about her starting days, she shared,” I had to sell the vegetables to the local shop keepers at a lower price than the market price”. The nearest market is Butwal where a lot of vegetables are imported from India and the local products have to compete with them. “We had to give an extra kilo or so to incentivize the shopkeepers”, she states and adds, “But sales is good, demand is high and at times it is even difficult to fulfill the demand.”

The nationwide lockdown hampered her business, as vegetables being perishable in nature, it could not be stocked for long. The perished vegetables had to be disposed in large quantities and the business faced a huge loss. But now she plans to diversify her business by starting a pickle factory using all the vegetables grown in her own farm and give employment to 5-10 woman from her own village.

The President of WEAN Rupandehi Ms. Anita KC informed her about the ILO-FWEAN program. She expected it to be a sharing platform where they would get to learn from other woman entrepreneurs. Although the trainings were not focused on farming, she felt it helped her learn about the business aspects and think about how to improve her business.

Rana used to feel lazy and ignored the daily basic transaction but the business sessions taught her that it is important to keep all the records. Since the training, she has started keeping all the records on a daily basis. She also learned that if a woman desires to something she can achieve anything in life.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has made operating the business stressful but being in the zoom sessions made her happy. She shared her overwhelming experience of using zoom app and being on the virtual training for the first time. “It was a pleasure to meet new friends and hear their stories, it made me feel that we are all in the same boat”, she shares. It is not only her business that has been affected but the whole world is suffering.

She wished to have physical training on grading, labeling and packaging training organized for the woman entrepreneurs so it could be more effective. “After the virtual session and seeing a lot of woman moving forward, I also now feel that we could give training to a lot of other woman entrepreneurs and help them earn for themselves so they need not depend on their husband.”