In Tikha village of Motipur block, winds of change have started blowing pointing to an economic shift. Interestingly, it is led not by a corporation or a politician, but by a 49-year-old woman who once was happy within the confines of her home. Today, Shobha Devi is known across the region as an agri-entrepreneur who is reigning as the 'Mushroom Queen' and whose advisory network spans nearly 400 farmers.
The transformation from a housewife to that of a farmer began in 2020 for Shobha when she joined a Self-Help Group under the Bihar government's Jeevika initiative, implemented by the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Committee. During one of the meetings, the group leader introduced her to the Agri-Entrepreneur (AE) Programme, a joint initiative of Jeevika and the Syngenta Foundation India. It offers 21 days of intensive training that equips rural women with technical and managerial skills to run farm-based enterprises.
It is here that Shobha learned nursery management, mushroom cultivation, vermicomposting, mulching techniques, grain trading, cost calculation and farmer advisory systems.
The training changed her life and reshaped her outlook. "Initially, I took help from villagers, but I did not get any kind of cooperation. But that did not deter me. I waited for a loan which I got - it was Rs 2 lakh through Jeevika's initiative. I also combined my savings to start the work," she recalls.
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