Rüvino Chütso drives her power tiller to plough her fields in Phesama village. (Morung Photo)
Morung Express News
Kohima | July 14
Every morning during the rice cultivation season, Rüvino Chütso, a 33-year old single mother drives her power tiller to plough her fields. Chütso from Phesama is the only woman in her village who has learned how to drive a power tiller till date.
For the single mother and farmer, learning to drive a power tiller has been an empowering move.
Having to balance between household work and farm work, manually ploughing the field was a tedious task for Chütso.
“We have no other option but to farm, for many of us women in the village. And there is no end to farming. With the ending of one cycle, another cycle begins, there is no rest. It felt very bearing on me, so I thought I'll try applying for a power tiller from the Department of Agriculture,” says Chütso. However, when she received the power tiller in 2016 under the Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM), Department of Agriculture, she had to hire someone else to drive the tiller.
Despite the efficiency of the power tiller, Chütso realised that hiring someone else to drive the power tiller was incurring more loss. So, in 2019 she decided to learn how to drive the tiller with the help of another farmer in Mima village.
“It was hard work. At first, I was a little scared to drive on the steeper deplorable roads and fields. But now I'm confidently able to drive on any road,” says Chütso.
While the power tiller is mostly used during rice cultivation, this year Chütso says that she and her fellow farmers were able to cultivate ginger and chillies in abandoned fields. Having witnessed changes in the farming pattern in recent years, the woman farmer rues that many fields are being abandoned with the lack of proper roads and especially mudslides.
In a day, Chütso can plough an area of 1 ha saving her both time and money which was a herculean task for her in the past.
Having learned to drive, she not only ploughs her fields but also lends her service to neighbouring fields. With the new skill, the single mother has also been able to earn additional income. “My daughter passed her matriculation this year, and I was able to pay her admission fees with what I earned,” says the mother proudly.
Chütso even served as a resource person during trainings under SMAM organised by the Department of Agriculture. During the training, she taught farmer participants from several villages in the Southern Angami region which included both men and women on how to drive the power tiller.
“So far, with good health I am very happy with what I have and what I can do. Some people laugh at the sight of me driving a power tiller. But now I am used to it. The men used to laugh at me but now they would also ask me to teach them,” says Chütso.
