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In 1990, Sangita Deepak Sawalakhe was on a college assignment to meet farmers. She was in a remote village, Sindhevahi, in the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra. The farmer she met was in his late 40s. Once well-to-do, spiralling debt to sustain his agriculture had pushed him into penury.
As Sangita talked to the farmer, she learnt that he had taken debts from a local moneylender to buy pesticides, fertiliser and other inputs for his farm. But inclement weather spoilt his crops and his debts kept increasing. He had mortgaged his house, tractor and other items, Sangita recounts. His son, once from a well-off family, had to take up a job as a peon in a nearby town.
Learn more about how her firm Vidarbha Biotech Lab in Yavatmal helps to make Biopesticides are over 10 times cheaper than chemical-based agricultural inputs
