From a Small Plot to a Bigger Dream: How Tabita Tidu Is Growing Hope Through Farming
For years, farming meant survival for Tabita Tidu. Today, the soil beneath her feet represents something much more—a chance to earn, to save and to dream of a better future for her family.
At 57, Tabita Tidu knows the rhythm of farming well. She knows when the soil is ready, when the crops need water and how much hard work it takes to bring food from the field to the family kitchen.
But for many years, hard work alone was not enough.
Living in Siamal village under Rungaon Gram Panchayat in Badgaon block of Sundargarh district, Tabita and her husband, Gosnar Tidu, depended largely on seasonal agriculture. Their family of six—including their son, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren—grew paddy and vegetables mainly once a year.
As members of the Munda tribal community and a BPL household, the family faced the daily challenge of making a limited income stretch across their many needs. Providing better educational opportunities for their children was difficult. Their farm could feed the family, but it could not generate enough income to help them move forward.
Tabita was a farmer. What she lacked was access to the knowledge and opportunities that could help her farm become a stronger source of livelihood.
The Moment Things Began to Change
In November 2023, Tabita became part of Samajik Seva Sadan’s (SSS) project, “Sustainable Empowerment of Adivasi and Dalit Communities in Rural Odisha through Protection of Natural Resources and Promotion of Agriculture.”
It was the beginning of a gradual transformation.
Through awareness programmes, skill-development training, and regular guidance from SSS project staff, Tabita began learning about improved agricultural practices and sustainable ways of managing her farm.
For the first time, she was not simply following the farming practices she had always known. She was learning why certain techniques worked, how better planning could improve production, and how different crops could create additional income.
The training gave her something equally important: confidence.
“A small piece of land, when supported with the right knowledge, can become a source of hope.”
From Seeds to Possibility
In January 2025, Tabita decided to try something new—onion cultivation.
With support from SSS, she received 100 grams of onion seed, pheromone traps, light and yellow sticky traps, and organic manure. With guidance from project staff, she prepared a nursery bed and learned improved methods of bed preparation, organic input application, and timely transplantation.
She planted onions on just 4 Dismil of land.
It was a small beginning, but Tabita treated it with determination.
She exchanged 15 kg of onions worth ₹350 with another farmer to obtain organic manure. Alongside her family members, she regularly weeded the field, watered the crop, and protected the plants from stray animals.
Day by day, the small plants grew.
And with them grew Tabita’s confidence.
When the Harvest Arrived
By April 2025, her efforts had produced an encouraging harvest—approximately 4 quintals of high-quality onions with large-sized bulbs.
Tabita sold 25 kg at ₹20 per kg, earning ₹500 from the initial sale. Instead of selling the entire harvest immediately, she chose to store the remaining onions for household consumption and future sale.
The decision reflected a change in the way she viewed her farm.
Her produce was no longer simply something to harvest and consume. It could be food security today, savings for tomorrow and income when the family needed it.
For Tabita, the onions represented much more than a successful crop.
They represented possibility.
“For Tabita, the harvest was not only of onions and millet—it was a harvest of confidence.”
One Crop Opened the Door to Another
Encouraged by the results, Tabita continued exploring new opportunities.
Through SSS, she was linked with the Shree Anna Government Millet Promotion Project. She cultivated millet on 20 Dismil of land, supported by technical guidance and regular monitoring.
Her harvest reached 120 kg of millet.
She sold 103 kg through the mandi at ₹42 per kg, earning ₹4,326.
For a family that had long depended on limited seasonal income, this additional earning was significant. More importantly, millet cultivation gave Tabita another opportunity to diversify her farm and strengthen household food security.
A Farmer’s Confidence Becomes a Family’s Hope
The impact of Tabita’s journey cannot be measured only in kilograms harvested or rupees earned.
There is another change—one that is harder to measure but perhaps more important.
Tabita now believes more strongly in the potential of her own farm.
The knowledge she gained has encouraged her to think beyond traditional subsistence farming. She is planning to expand her agricultural activities, adopt more sustainable practices and engage more actively with markets.
Her family, too, has begun to see farming differently.
The additional food and income have brought greater security, while the family’s hopes for providing better educational opportunities for the grandchildren have grown stronger.
“She is no longer farming only to survive; she is farming to build a better future.”
What Her Story Means
Tabita’s journey demonstrates what can happen when a farmer’s determination meets the right knowledge, timely support and access to opportunities.
The intervention did not replace her hard work. Instead, it strengthened what she already possessed—the willingness to work, the land available to her and her experience as a farmer.
SSS helped connect these strengths with technical knowledge, agricultural inputs, government programmes and continued handholding.
The result is a farmer who is more confident, a family with greater food security and a livelihood with greater potential for growth.
The Impact Behind the Support
For development partners and donors, Tabita’s story represents the value of investing not merely in inputs, but in people and their capacity to create lasting change.
A small package of seeds and agricultural inputs became more meaningful when combined with training, technical guidance, regular field support and government linkage.
Through such interventions, vulnerable tribal and rural families can gradually move from dependence on subsistence farming towards more diverse, sustainable and resilient livelihoods.
Tabita’s experience shows that sustainable development often begins at the grassroots—with a farmer, a field and the opportunity to learn.
A Small Farm. A Bigger Dream.
Today, when Tabita looks at her fields, she sees more than crops.
She sees food for her family.
She sees additional income.
She sees greater confidence.
And, perhaps most importantly, she sees a future in which her grandchildren can have opportunities that were difficult for her own family to provide.
Her journey reminds us that change does not always begin with a large investment. Sometimes, it begins with a few seeds, a little knowledge and someone who believes in a farmer’s potential.
Tabita is cultivating onions and millet—but she is also cultivating resilience, dignity, and hope.
And with every new harvest, her dream of a more secure future grows a little bigger.