I am happy to sustain my livelihood

gender expert REEDS Pakistan

SUCCESS STORY BY REEDS PAKISTAN

COMPILED AND PREPARED BY GENDER EXPERT: SHAGUFTA

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: WAQAR

Empowering Women in Climate Smart Agriculture

The Journey of Ghulam Ayesha, Site PKRY01

REEDS reserves the copyright to this story publication

Village:221/chak

District: RahimyarKhan

Project: Better Cotton Initiatives

IP: REEDS Pakistan

Compiled and reviewed by: Gender Expert

In the fields of site PKRY01,221/chak agriculture is more than a livelihood; it is a way of life passed down through generations. Ghulam Ayesha, a determined woman farmer from this community, has turned that everyday work into a story of self-reliance, innovation, and quiet leadership among the women of her village.

Before connecting to our project, she was facing random pest attacks on her cotton crops. She was worried and exhausted by the issues she was facing time and again regarding taking care of plants and increasing income. For her, cotton cultivation was the only source of income generation for her family. Along with all other fieldwork which she used to do by herself and sometimes with support from her sons, when it came to pest control and spending money to buy chemical sprays, it also felt like a burden to her.

Her journey began when she received training on the preparation and use of botanical spray from Field Facilitator (FF) Muhammad Afzal. Under his guidance, she learned to prepare a natural, plant-based pesticide using locally available ingredients such as Neem, Aak (Calotropis), and Kor Tumma, a formulation that controls harmful insects effectively while remaining safe for human health and the environment.

For the past three years, Ghulam Ayesha has prepared this spray herself, boiling the ingredients over an open fire to draw out their natural pest-repelling properties. What began as a skill for her own fields soon grew into something more: each cotton season, she now prepares and sells 50 to 60 litres of botanical spray to fellow farmers in her area, earning between PKR 800and 900 per litre, and turning her knowledge into a steady source of additional income for her household. Though it is only a seasonal earning, she has learned to decide and promote the business and bring about a change in other farmers' thinking as well.

On her own land, she has relied exclusively on botanical spray for three consecutive years, without a single application of synthetic pesticide. The results speak for themselves: her cotton crop consistently shows lower insect attack than her neighbours' fields, and her average yield has stayed above 20 maunds per acre every year, a figure that continues to outperform many farmers around her who still depend on chemical sprays.

This year brought a new chapter to her story. REEDS Pakistan provided Ghulam Ayesha with a botanical extractor, a simple but powerful tool that has transformed how she works. Where she once spent long hours boiling neem and aak over a fire, she can now extract a larger quantity of juice in far less time, saving her labour, saving her money once spent on hired help, and giving her more time for her family and her fields.

Another exclusive impact that she has experienced this year is the sale of botanical spray to other farmers whose crops are adjacent to hers. Now her crops are completely safe from pest attacks, and the quality is far better than previous years.

It was definitely not at all easier for her to stand out like this as a female and do her own business. Of course, she faced harsh words from the community and people’s gossip about her for making sales as a woman, but she never gave up and motivated others as well to adopt the practice and experience the change. She fought for her right to access resources and livelihood improvement and won. She is truly a role model for the community.

She says:

“I believe that no work is impossible; anything we can do with hard work.”

Today, Ghulam Ayesha speaks of REEDS Pakistan and Better Cotton with quiet gratitude, crediting their training and support for the progress she has made. Her story is a reminder that when women farmers are given the right knowledge and the right tools, they do not just grow better cotton; they grow stronger, more self-reliant communities for everyone around them.