I wanted to introduce you to Asmita Lama, a 36-year-old woman who is the mother of 2 sons (16 and 11 years old) and a wife for 17 years now. Above all her family and her home are important to her. She is born and raised in Tulachauon, Jitpur Phedi, where she lived with her parents and her four brothers. After finishing the third grade (primary school), she worked with her parents on their farm. At the age of 20, she got married and moved in with her husband in Jitpur Phedi.
The first five years after she got married she had already started farming, this, however, proofed to be very difficult. In that time she grew corn and rice (no vegetables). Working alone and starting a farm by yourself is hard, there were a lot of challenges because she did not have any support at that time.
After she got in touch with VIN and joined the Mirimire Women group for farming, she started her training in individual farming. Asmita decided to become a member not only for the training but also for life development and social relations. With the group, they shared their stories, hardship, problems, and solutions and thus helping each other on their journey to become independent and successful. The training and lessons were provided by VIN. After 1 year of training, she started working independently again with all the knowledge she had acquired.
She now began her vegetable farm, where she grows spinach, garlic, cucumber, gourd, beans, corn, onion, and tomato. Tomato plants were one of her biggest challenges, she started cultivating them without any knowledge. Which resulted in big losses in the first 2 years. Again she proofed herself being a determined and persistent woman, she kept on growing tomatoes. Nowadays they are being sold for good market value. She wants to develop her tomato skills and is thinking about taking on an extra study in order to increase her profit. She is still not as comfortable and confident about her tomatoes as that she is about her other crops. But does give it to her best in becoming better at what she does.
VIN taught her about organic farming, this is why she uses organic fertilizer, such as goat dung and compost and insect killers (supporting spiders). However, it is not possible for her not to use any chemicals, because there were lesser products in the past. Seeing as her entire family depends on the farm, having a good profit is necessary for her to support her family. Just as her family also supports her whenever she needs help on the farm. Her husband may be the head of the household, she is the head of the farm.
Whenever she speaks about her family her eyes light up, everything she does and all the choices she makes are in order for her family to be healthy. This is why she chose to start her farm near her home, in her place of origin. Jitpur is her family, it is very neighborly, there is no competition between farmers and it is cultivated land.
The fact that she undertakes every challenge does not back down after hardship but rather keeps on going until she is successful is exactly what makes her one of the most successful women I have ever met. She is a teacher to everyone about life. She is aware about the important parts of living. Some people might be too stubborn to seek help or advice from outsiders, Asmita however embraces it, she takes on every opportunity to learn in order never to give up on her dream. Her dream to be successful on her farm and provide her family with a good life She still has her ways in which she needs to learn, but she knows the reason why she challenges herself and works hard every day, it is her family. I think everybody would be lucky to have a family member like her.
Noralie van ‘t Klooster
(Dutch volunteer VIN)
Member of