Kamareddy: Farmer sisters laugh all the way to banks

Kamareddy: While many farmers ruing failure in farming, the siblings Pedda Mallavva and Chinna Mallavva of Kupriyal village in Sadashivanagar mandal of Kamareddy district are reaping good returns from their hard work in the field.

Believing and living in beauty of working life, they both have no home of their own nor have an agricultural land in their name. They cultivate crops on leased farmlands as the lease farming is the basis of their livelihood.

Unlike everyone else, crops are cultivated in a variety of ways and competing with men. They perform tough duties and do all the works by themselves which is appreciated by all.

Sisters Pedda Mallavva and Chinna Mallavva of Kupriyal village are guiding not only the locals but also the neighboring village farmers by cultivating sugarcane, cotton, paddy and vegetables. Gayatri Sugars officials also tell farmers in neighboring villages to follow Mallavva siblings' farming practices.

Pedda Mallavva's husband Gangareddy is dead. She has a daughter from him, Jamuna. She returns to the paternal village Priyal with her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter and resides there. Sister Chinna Mallavva could not bear the domestic violence and left her husband, returned to her native village to live with her sister.

The sisters have been living in rented houses for 18 years. Mallavva siblings farmed and raised their child Jamuna and married her off.

The sugarcane crop cultivated by Mallavva sisters is getting high yields. Last year, the Mallavva sisters together set a record yield of 55 tonnes of sugarcane per acre. From the sugarcane transplantation onwards, crop management functions are performed only by the duo. Workers come only to cut sugarcane.

They do everything from planting sugarcane to weeding. Water is provided by drip. Good yields are being achieved in sugarcane cultivation every year. It is said that the yield will be the same this time as well. Chicken manure and cattle manure are used for the crop. Many people go to see their cultivation method.

Mallavva siblings are cultivating four acres of land belonging to a man Venkatereddy living on the outskirts of Adlur Ellareddy village.

With the help of the land owner, the two sisters are cultivating crops by adopting modern methods and achieving high yields. Sugarcane is grown on two acres and paddy on one and a half acres. Elsewhere, vegetables are grown. The two sisters wake up early in the morning and cook together. Walk to the farm on foot with "Saddimoota" (lunch bag). The sisters return home just after dusk. Competing on an equal footing with men, cultivating crops and achieving high yields is praised by all.

The two Mallavva sisters visit the crop fields they cultivate every day and do crop management and maintenance work themselves.

The farm is about two kilometers away from the village and can be reached on foot. The two women would not work on other people's farms. They do not allow to work with other labourers on their farm. Only Mallavva sisters apply chemical fertilizers to the crop without any help. They spray pesticides on the crops from the pump hung over their shoulders as it roams the field as a grade. They are doing their own thing and earning a living. They also expose their lives by employing retailers through vegetable cultivation.