Success Story of Laishram Bribal Singh
A potential agro-based entrepreneur, Bribal converted his paddy field of four acres to cultivation of Kouna plant, raw material of the handicraft. He earns about twelve lakh rupees per annum from his Kouna cultivation farm with very minimum annual maintenance investment at the tune of rupees thirty thousand at the most. The intervention of Manipur Maparee, my humble effort, is a greater hope for Bribal as he wishes to expand raw material production farming.
He is now only reluctant about Kouna raw material drying and safe piling and need a large hall. He is aiming at a soft loan and Manipur Maparee is looking into every possibility to link him to government assistances and at least a self-driven fund source from SHG groups of Kouna handicraft successful artisans. Because the artisan’s success and upward business trend is possible only with enough production of raw material.
Shri Bribal has done a great job of priceless gift to the locality due to his farm’s cooling effect to the local micro climate. The cultivation of Kouna is synonymous with water body conservation, wetland maintenance, carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation. Surely, he deserves a prize, DoE&CC (Directorate of Environment & Climate Change) is enlisting him in excellent farmers group for acknowledgement and support for practicing sustainable ecosystem-based farming. Sky is the limit for Bribal and the effort of Manipur Maparee is a catalyst for his grand efforts.