Visit to Village

Date: 17-Jul-14

Village: Raipur khela mau

Block : Nawabganj

District : Unnao

Distance from Lucknow city: 50 kms.

Total Household: 125- 150 approx.

FA name: Kripa Shankar Tripathi

A group of 5 people from CCO and from Branch office ‘Lucknow’ visited “Raipur Khela Mau” village which is in Nawabganj block and Unnao district of the state Uttar Pradesh. The purpose of the visit was to meet the current and potential treadle pump users and to derive the reason of low sales.

FA “Kripa Shankar Tripathi” joined us on the way. As we entered the village, we saw one small farm in which treadle pump was being used by the farmer for irrigation. The total landsize of the farm was 3 Bigha on which the farmer was growing vegetables namely cucumber, tomato, mint for self consumption. She also cultivates marigold flowers and sells in the weekly haat market to earn additional money for household use. In livestock, she owns one buffalo, whose milk she uses for personal use only. She is very happy with the use of TP as it is very convenient and easy to use, even her 13 year old daughter and 8 year old son sometimes pedal the pump for fun. The greatest advantage is that she can irrigate her field for the entire year and is not rainfed dependant. She pedals the pump on an average 1 hour every day and also uses the water for her household work. Her husband works in the Kinley water plant and does not contribute to agriculture.

After meeting her we were curious to know about the total sales of last month (June’14). We asked Mr. Tripathi for the sales number. However we did not get any conclusive response, when asked for the register with household details he tried to dodge the question. At first, he said that the register with details got wet in the last rain and so he is maintaining a diary with household details. On examination we found only few names written with no other details such as contact number, address etc.

We continued with our visit to other farmers in the village.

We met another lady farmer who was aware about treadle pump, its cost and advantages. However, she cited lack of money as the reason for not purchasing one for herself and strongly recommended that treadle pumps should be given for free.

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As we moved further into the village we saw few farmers sitting and chatting. Using it as an opportunity to better understand their lives and agriculture related challenges we started interacting with them. As we started to discuss the benefits of TP several other people comprising young men, school going children, old people also gathered and all of them seems to be very much inspired by the usefulness of TP.

In the meantime, we were disappointed with the FA as he was interacting with the farmers inappropriately. His rude behaviour and harsh words were intimidating the farmer instead of helping them open up.

We then met a farmer who was living with his wife and two children and talked about the usefulness of TP. The farmer made inquiries about where, how to purchase and install the TP. The farmer was as if waiting for this information and as a result immediately agreed to purchase TP.

On asking about why he did not purchased it before, the farmer simply shared that nobody had visited or provided any information about TP.

When BA was asked to help the farmer to purchase the pump, his attitude, language and behaviour reflected deep arrogance. Seeing his apathetic attitude he was asked to leave the place immediately.

As we move ahead, we met a B.sc student and explained the uses and benefits of TP for poor farmers. Though he was already aware of the KB pump, he did not seem to be much impressed by its use. He felt that pedalling the pump everyday was a wasted effort and that it would be far more convenient to hire a diesel pump.

We then met an old lady who owns a big decent house and lives with her daughter’s daughter and her children. When told about the benefits of using TP for irrigating the field, she did not seem interested. She had concerns around the pump being stolen if left on the field overnight and the task of uninstalling and reinstalling everyday was too cumbersome. She feels that though diesel is Rs. 64 per litre, still it is feasible to use, as no manual work is required for it.

Then we moved further in the village. The next household we visited comprised of four family members. The man of the house was the bread earner and worked

as head mason in Lucknow City. He is earning very well and meets with all family expenses. He engages in farming more as a hobby than need. He also shared an unpleasant past experience in which many people of the village were duped of money. We realised that he was not our potential customer, and we politely greeted him and took leave.

While leaving we visited a hardware cum grocery shop owner and asked for his contact details for any future reference.

Conclusion:

Our visit helped us learn about the real grassroots realities and challenges of the farmers. It was a great learning experience. The following points sum up our observations and conclusions:

1. Overall TP is very much relevant for small farmers. It responds to their irrigation needs very well.

2. Although some farmers demanded that TP be given for free, however we feel that since we did not visit their homes we are not aware of their real struggles and challenges. It may be a little premature to derive that farmers cannot pay upfront for treadle pump.

3. Direct feedback from farmers reveals that IDEI FA’s are not making regular visits and promoting the TP amongst farmers. We feel this is very critical feedback and must be looked into immediately. It will definitely boost the sales.

4. We observed that most farmers did not have mobile phones. It seems unlikely that they possessed a phone and were unwilling to share the numbers. This should input into our household data collection format and we should find another alternative for contact details.

5. We also observed FA’s extremely rude and impolite behaviour towards the farmers-who are our very customers.

6. Focus needs to be made on boosting the sales of the pump, to train the FA’s for adopting right sales strategy and also to replace the existing FA with a new one, if required.