Mrs. Bharati Hazarika of Tekela Gaon, Jorhat District, Assam is a promising entrepreneur and
supports her family, including her daughter’s higher education. The situation was not same in
2011. Her family consisted of 5 members including her husband and three daughters. . Her
husband was the only incomer of the family who worked as a daily wage earner. It was difficult
for the family to meet their aspirations with this income.
Farm 2 Food Foundation introduced the FarmPreneur programme at Chitralekha School in 2011.
Mrs. Bharthi’s youngest daughter Ms. Trishna Hazarika was a student of class 6 in the same
school and participated in the programme. She got trained in preparation of vermicompost with
locally available materials. She was so excited about the programme and came home and
prepared a box of vermicompost at home, with her mother’s help. When the vermicompost was
ready, they used it initially in their homestead vegetable garden. They were amazed by the result
of using organic manure- Vermicompost. The harvest was better that time. This made the mother
and daughter duo more interested in preparing vermicompost. This time they prepared larger
quantities as some of their neighbors have asked them for the new manure that improved
production. When the second lot was ready, they were able to sell the vermicompost. The profit
and interest increased. Mrs. Bharati bought earthworms of Rs.10 and made a bamboo tank for
vermicompost. She observed and learnt that if she could do this in a larger way than she could
produced more vermicompost and earned more income from that.
At this point, it came to Farm2Food Foundation’s noticed that this activity has more economic
potential. They coordinated with the State Agriculture Department to provide 2 vermi bags to
Mrs. Bharati to increase her production. Today, she had 4 vermi bags where she prepares
vermicompost following scientific methods. The quality that she maintains is the key to large
demand for her vermicompost in the market.
She supplies vermicompost, vermi wash and earth worms to small and large organic farmers in
and around Jorhat district. The Tea estates which are keen on producing organic tea keeping in
mind its large demand in export market, are a boon to Bharti’s enterprise. Most of the time, the
customers are waiting for her product to be ready and purchased.
It low investment and easy availability of input items has helped Mrs. Bharati to start this new
enterprise. Maintaining quality of the product is the unique selling point that ensures continues
demand. At present her yearly sales of vermicompost is worth of Rs.40,000/- .
The entrepreneurship activity taken up by Mrs. Bharati helped her not just to improve the
family’s economic condition. It gave the family new hopes and the courage to dream big. Ms.
Trishana Hazarika, our hero who took her homework given at the FarmPreneur session seriously,
is currently a student of Sericulture at Assam Agriculture University. Being actively involved in
the FarmPreneur activity helped her to improve her scientific aptitude and made her confident
enough to scale greater heights. Also, this helps the family to fund Krishna’s education.

Ms. Bharti Hazarika inspired many other families in the village to take up vermicompost
preparation as a livelihood activity. Tekelagaon is a known supplier of good quality
vermicompost in the nearby districts.
Farm2Food Foundation has a vision of enabling the rural community to be self reliant through
entrepreneurship. We help the community to identify local and low input opportunities which
can help them to have improved income. An extra income would guarantee economic stability
and more confidence to rural families to achieve their dreams and aspirations.