Sunanda Shivaji Kshirsagar has studied only till class VIII, but this thing never hindered her success. He established a poultry farming business on the strength of his entrepreneurial skills and helped in increasing the income of the family. She is now providing employment to others through her business. He started the business with 500 chickens, whose number has now increased to 50 thousand.
Seeing Sunanda’s success, the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) of Aurangabad studied her business. He has also been honored with the Krishi Bhushan Samman of the Government of Maharashtra in 2016. Sunanda hails from Pangra village of Paithan tehsil in Aurangabad district. She was married in 1992 and her husband Shivaji is a science graduate. At that time her husband was considering taking up a job for a livelihood, but later both of them changed their plan and thought of cultivating their four acres of land.
Sunanda said on Women’s Day, ‘I have studied till class VIII. To help my husband, I decided to start a poultry business and bought 500 chickens. This business initially earned five to six thousand per month. He said, ‘But we did not stop there. Today we have more than fifty thousand chickens and we get a profit of seven to eight lakhs per month. Sunanda’s son is also a science graduate. He is studying agriculture related courses and also helps them in business.
‘Now poultry farming has become the main occupation of our family and with the help of this we now have 27 acres of land instead of four acres, of which I myself am the owner of 13 acres,’ said Sunanda. Poultry farming course specialist at KVK Anita Jinturkar said that women generally do not do poultry/goat rearing, but Sunanda Kshirsagar is an exception.