Geeta Devi Put Half an Acre to a Higher-Value Test

The trial began with a practical question about land she could not make any bigger.

On 18 May 2025, Geeta Devi planted the Sugandha variety of turmeric on half an acre. The crop stayed in the field until 25 January 2026 - a 241-day cycle of soil preparation, manure, irrigation, mulching, weeding, harvesting, cutting and transport.

The farm record is what makes the work visible. It lists five quintals of seed, cow dung, one irrigation, sugarcane-leaf mulch, hired labour for planting and weeding, and expenditure for excavation, cutting and transport. Total recorded expenditure was ₹51,800.

The harvest was 62 quintals. Gross receipts were ₹1,17,800, leaving a stated surplus of ₹66,000.

This is stronger than a testimonial because it can be checked: a crop, an area, dates, quantities and an itemised cost sheet, all of which Geeta can walk through line by line.

She carried the agronomic and the financial risk. She committed the land for eight months, organised the labour and inputs, and brought the crop to harvest. Her Aajeevika Adhikar Sangathan gave women farmers a setting in which to compare crop choices. DEHAT’s contribution was technical learning, documentation and access to a farmer network.

This is a different journey from the earlier Geeta Devi story in Bhedhanpurwa, which concerned onion and bitter gourd on two small plots. Different village, different collective, different production cycle.

The question worth following is not whether turmeric is more profitable than paddy in the abstract. It is whether she repeats it, what happened after the sale, how much family labour it absorbed, and whether other women used her record to decide something of their own.

It documents a crop, an area, dates, quantities and an itemised cost sheet.