Abandonment To Abundance: Maharashtra Woman Cultivates Oranges Earning Over Rs 7 Lakh

By Shashank Laware

Amravati: Abandoned by her father when she was barely seven months old, Bharti Pohorkar and her mother went to her maternal grandparents home, where she was raised through a one-acre-land in Maharashtra's Amravati district that the elderly couple owned.

Bharti's grandmother Shantabai Kisanrao Bhoge and grandfather Kisanrao Nagoji Bhoge adored and doted on her, saying she was destined to experiment on the single acre land they owned. For Bharati, she did not let her early-life trauma scar her life. Instead, she was determined to do something significant with her life.

Bharti Pohorkar (ETV Bharat)

Bharti resides in a small village of Karajgaon in Chandur Bazar taluka of Amravati. Despite poverty and adversity, her family overcame several obstacles with immense faith and perseverance to ensure Bharati pursued her education. After college, she moved to Amravati city, where she completed her postgraduate degree in Commerce and after that, appeared for competitive examinations. However, she did not achieve the desired success and for a while, even worked at a petrol pump to earn some good money.

Having grown up on a farm, her connection to the soil remained strong and she kept mulling about moving to her roots. Finally, Bharati decided to work on her own farm, the same plot that had once supported her and her mother, to take a turn for the better.

Bharti now cultivates an orange orchard on this farm. "Even though my grandparents are no longer with us, whatever little success I'm getting is due to the land and the values they left behind," Bharti told ETV Bharat.

Bharti Pohorkar with her mother Sumitra (ETV Bharat)

This year, Bharti has become a 'lakhpati'. Come winter and this entire region of Vidarbha turns orange with the fruits all piled up on carts for sale. Bharti has already sold fruits from her 140 orange trees for Rs 7 lakh this season.

Her mother, Sumitra (68), basking in her daughter's success, said, "My daughter manages everything on her own and works just as hard as a son. We have earned Rs seven lakh this time. She is brightening our days and lives. I am enjoying my old age only because of my daughter."

Bharti started out by growing vegetables on this land. Her confidence was reinforced from the money she earned. "Initially, I grew onions and chilies as intercrops for the first four years. I decided to experiment as I enhanced the soil quality by carefully applying organic and biofertilisers and switching between biological fungicides and insecticides when necessary. All this was to prepare for an orange grove," said Bharti.

Bharti Pohorkar has 140 orange trees on the one-acre land (ETV Bharat)

After that, she boldly decided to plant orange trees in her field under the direction of Chandur Bazar Agriculture Department officials and the counsel of seasoned farmers in her community. On her one-acre property, 140 orange trees stood tall in just three or four years.

"During the 'Mriga constellation' time this year, our orange trees began to blossom. This orchard has given us a new sense of confidence and courage to live in addition to providing us income," said Bharti.

However, Bharti's journey had not been easy, as this young woman encountered several challenges in this male-dominated agricultural sector. The initial problem was to find labour, she recalled. "It was a challenging effort for me as a female farmer as finding labourers on time to work was difficult. Then we decided to divide the work between us, and I only hired laborers for tasks like setting up bamboo supports to keep the orange trees upright while majority of the work, including spraying, fertilising, and watering, was done by myself," she added.

Also Read

1. Madurai Teacher Sets An Example By Cycling 55 Km To School In Manamadurai On Alternate Days
2. Defying Odds And Distances: Sapera Ka Bas Girls Fight For Education