Sharmila Oswal started business with farmers who are cultivating coarse grains

Coarse grains farming or Millets farming: It is generally seen that after getting higher education in the country many youths move to foreign countries in search of a better future, but there are some people who leave the comforts of foreign countries from their soil. They want to work for improving the lives of the farmers here. One such ambitious and lively woman is Sharmila Oswal, Managing Director of Basilia Organics. In order to promote organic farming and to bring organic and healthy food among the people, she formed the company Basilia Organics and sells her products in the market under the brand One Organics. Not only this, Sharmila is also continuously working towards improving the lives of farmers. Sharmila Oswal, during conversation with Kisan of India, told about her journey from abroad to the country and association with farmers.

Working with farmers for 20 years 

Even after years of living in England and Canada, Sharmila remained a native at heart and the fragrance of the country’s soil and the spirit of doing something for the farmers brought her to India. Sharmila has been working with farmers for almost 20 years on issues like water, agriculture, increasing crop productivity, food security, improving seeds etc, in addition to training farmers.

Why chose to work with farmers? 

Sharmila says, “I consider myself to be the daughter of soil. I am originally from Rajasthan and was born in Konkan (Maharashtra). I lived abroad for many years, also had Canadian citizenship which I surrendered. I wanted to do something for my country, so I returned to the country and started working with farmers. I also worked with farmers in Vidarbha district of Maharashtra, where farmers were committing suicide. Also worked with farmers of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Agriculture has been a very unorganized sector in Meghalaya, we also worked here and specially made women farmers aware and emphasized on increasing their participation in farming. 

Beneficial for millet farmers 

Sharmila Oswal says that the cultivation of millets i.e. coarse cereals like ragi, jowar, bajra are very beneficial for the farmers, as they can be grown easily in every season. There is no tension of rain, drought etc. and farmers can increase their income by making value addition products of these grains.

Value Addition Crops of Millets 

Farmers can earn extra by making ragi biscuits, laddus, noodles, jowar namkeen, popcorn, chips and even chips, namkeen etc from millets. Sharmila says that all these grains are very nutritious and everyone wants to feed nutritious things to their family. In such a situation, farmers can get additional income by making value addition products through processing. She has formed several cooperatives where women are taught food packaging, grading etc. Capacity development of women farmers is done so that they can improve their standard of living by getting additional income.

Sharmila Oswal says that today’s youth love it if modern flavours and tastes are added to the nutritious diet. She uses Mexican pizza cheese and jalapeno flavours in jowar popcorn in the products she creates. Make noodles and pasta from millet, which is a favourite food of kids. They believe that if you add flavour according to today’s generation, the youth will find these healthy things tasty too. All their products are available on almost all e-commerce websites under the name One Organic.

Also Read: Natural farming reduced the cost and increased profit for this farmer of Andhra Pradesh

Promotion of organic farming 

Along with capacity development and training of farmers, Sharmila is also working towards promoting organic farming. She says that she is working on promoting organic farming using jaggery and buttermilk extracts. At present, 7 thousand farmers are associated with them. They have formed different clusters to connect with the farmers.

She believes that millets are our natural wealth, which is very rich and foreigners have also been convinced. So we need to promote its products. Their millet products have also made their mark abroad. 

Contact us – If farmers want to share any valuable information or experiences related to farming, they can connect with us via phone or whatsapp at 9599273766 or you can write to us at “kisanofindia.mail@gmail.com”. Through Kisan of India, we will convey your message to the people, because we believe that if the farmers are advanced then the country is happy.

You can connect with Kisan of India on Facebook, Twitter, and Whatsapp and Subscribe to our YouTube channel.