In 2017, after Kanak Lata’s husband Vasudev Pandey retired from a co-operative bank, the couple travelled to the USA to spend some months with their son. But, after a while, the couple decided to return to India to spend their retirement in Vittalpur village, which is about 30 km from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh.
With no pension to support their expenses, the husband and wife decided to start farming in their 1.5-acre farmland. However, neither of them had the required experience.
“Both of our families have a background in agriculture, and I always saw my grandfather and other relatives toil in the field,” says Kanak. The 57-year-old started with little know-how from her family and grew wheat, peas and tomatoes. But she was not satisfied with the outcome.
“The yield was too little, and the harvest was unstable. The soil fertility was poor and neighbouring farmers taunted us about growing vegetables in low-fertile land,” she says.
After a few setbacks, Kanak built her…