Suicide is not the solution….

In 2000, Yadamma's husband committed suicide, unable to bear the responsibility of clearing the debts that got mounted over and again that he could never come out of. Yadamma with 2 children lives at Manikyapuram village in Warangal District. She firmly believed that suicide is not the solution to the problem. In 2001, she purchased a cow with financial assistance from the self-help group that she had become a member of. Since then she has been utilizing the services of the nearest BAIF run cattle breeding center for artificial insemination, cattle rearing and management and fodder cultivation etc. Her herd strength has gone up during the last 5 years and she has now gone up during the last 5 years and she has now cleared the debts that led her husband to suicide. Now she earns an annual income of Rs. 25000/- on an average from this activity. Demonstrating strengths, confidence and hope Yadamma inspires and advise other farmers in similar situations to not yield to adversities in life but to look for alternate livelihood opportunities.

Shri K.Mallaiah's Journey from Poverty to Prosperity – A Case Study

“Timeless efforts can be rewarding and one can achieve anything by hard work and perseverance” is the motto of 60 year old Mr. K. Mallaiah, father of two (a daughter and a son). All he has is less than half acre of land which is un-fertile and hardly cultivates more than one crop a year. His daughter being mentally challenged , all his earning barely meet the need of medical expenses for her treatment

While he was struggling to make ends meet, the BAIF run Cattle Development Centre at Cheriyala village within the Janagaon Division Milk Chilling Centre jurisdiction under the sponsorship of DRDA-APDDF-WCBA came to his rescue. It was with their support and service that he was able to have his local buffalo to be artificially inseminated to give birth an upgraded (50% blood level) female calf. This calf matured 2 ½ years later and in-turn crossed by AI with the help of the BAIF CBCs, Cheriyala and another female calf (upgraded) was born 10 months later. This animal is now yielding 6-7 litres of milk in a day which is much more in comparison to her mother which could not give more than 3 litres a day.

Hence, Shri Mallaiah is now able to earn Rs. 16000/- per year by sale of milk alone. Moreover, he received Rs. 40,000/- by sale of 4 calves and his net returns were Rs. 20,000/-.

Today, he is totally confident that even without any Govt aid or support and just by depending on only the income from milk production alone that he will not only be able to meet the medical expenses of his daughter but finance the education of his son upto BA level as well. He expresses his gratitude and indebtedness to the BAIF run CBCs and DRDA-APBDDF-WCBA who have succeeded in uplifting a poor scheduled caste person like him and upholding his dignity.

Thus BAIF's intervention has been fruitful not only in alleviating poverty from Mr. K. Mallaiah's life but also instilled self confidence in him thereby making the prayer of Shri Rabindranath Tagore “Strike at the root of penury in my heart” come true by driving mental poverty out of his mind.