Veraval, Kotda Sangani, Rajkot Sustainable agriculture
The 29-year-old who moved 125 farmers off chemical fertiliser
Kajalben Vastarpra is a Krishi Sakhi in Veraval. She campaigned village to village for cow-based natural farming, and now holds office in the local Krushi Mandal.
Kajalben Hareshbhai Vastarpra is 29, and lives in Veraval, a village in Kotda Sangani taluka of Rajkot district. She began working with SSKK in 2023-24, and was appointed a Krishi Sakhi — a village-level agriculture facilitator — in 2025.
What she was arguing against
Two things at once, and they are connected. Input costs that rise every season and are paid in cash. Soil that gives less each year for more fertiliser.
Her answer was not a new product to buy. It was cow-based natural farming — dung and urine preparations a household can make from an animal it already owns.
That is a harder sell than it sounds. It asks a farmer to stop buying something familiar and trust something that looks like going backwards.
What happened
125 farmers across three villages — Dodiyala, Meghpar and Veraval — replaced chemical fertiliser with cow-based preparations after her awareness campaigns. Input costs fell; soil health began to recover.
She then did the unglamorous half. Five cow-based natural farmers in Veraval were linked to a government scheme paying ₹900 a month towards cow maintenance — money that already existed and was not reaching them.
She was appointed Pramukh Mantri of the Veraval Krushi Mandal, organising farmers to act together rather than one by one.
And her own household
Alongside the farming work, Kajalben trained in fast food and tailoring at Rajkot RSETI, and runs home-based enterprises from those skills.
Both halves matter. A Krishi Sakhi who is respected for her own enterprise argues from a different position than one who is only passing on a message.