Meet Vasantha Kumari our Rural Women Edupreneur, from Nanjanagudu, Mysuru District, Karnataka. Vasanthakumari is a woman with grit and determination. Her work is inspired by her exposure to Mahila Samakhya awareness programmes and by an activist friend. She is a trained nurse who has been working in the field of seed conservation and organic farming for the past 13 years. Despite a marginalised background and challenging family circumstances, Vasantha did not stop pursuing her dreams of working in her community and addressing malnutrition, especially among women. Vasantha joined the Plustrust fellowship programme in September 2020 to address this issue through her Kitchen Garden Project. She said, “Women in rural areas suffer from malnutrition as they are so busy working in the fields and are the last to eat in their houses. Even the food is not nutritious as vegetables are expensive. Growing vegetables in their backyard will help them to tackle the problem of food scarcity and they will have nutritious food to eat.” She says, “In the olden days we had a variety of vegetables, whose seeds were environment and agriculture friendly since they required minimum water and fertilizers and could be grown in all seasons. However, the hybrid seeds produced by the companies consume large amounts of water and fertilizers and can’t be stored. I want to break this dependency in my community and bring back the culture of local seed conservation and organic farming. Vasantha has been working on her project in Jyotigowdanapura, Chamarajanagar district. She has given orientation workshops to 50 families and educated them about organic farming and demonstrated farming techniques. After the workshop, the families were provided with organic seeds which they could sow in their own kitchen gardens at home. She also home visits to make sure they are following proper techniques. To continue her work, she plans to link her project with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme. Under this scheme, the families will be eligible to receive a one–time amount of Rs. 2800/- to start their kitchen gardens. She says that she heard about the Plustrust Fellowship Programme through her colleague Kaveri who works with her at Amritabhoomi. Vasantha said, “The fellowship programme has helped me to establish my identity and given me recognition in the community. I am also grateful to my mentor who guided me in the entire planning process for my project and helped me hone my skills in report writing. It allowed me to expand my work and create awareness about seed conservation and receive financial help as well”. Currently, she is working with an NGO called Amritabhoomi International Center for Sustainable Development and is also collaborating with them on her Kitchen Garden Project. The NGO is involved in providing organic seeds to the families she has trained. In 5 years, Vasantha says she wants to bring about change at the cluster or Taluka level and convince the people to grow their own food through a local seed bank. This she feels will also address the problem of malnutrition.