Bhubaneswar, Feb 16: Sorat, a small village in Dhenkanal, is witnessing an unusual transformation. Long constrained by limited employment opportunities and repeated crop damage caused by animals, the villagers had struggled to find stable avenues for work.
For the past two decades, villagers have been giving up farming and were forced to work as daily labourers due to repeated crop losses caused by animal raids, an ongoing challenge due to Sorat’s proximity to dense forests. All this changed a few months ago, with knowledge sessions, support and participatory action enabled by Reliance Foundation.
In August 2025, 28 villagers in their late 40s united to embrace and revive a 13-acre stretch of unused farmland in Sorat village. Central to their effort was solar-powered fencing which is a humane and sustainable technology designed to protect agricultural fields by safely deterring animals. It prevents entry without causing harm to animals, humans, or crops, ensuring effective field security while remaining environmentally friendly and non-lethal.
With protective fencing in place and guidance from Reliance Foundation to adopt multi-cropping for improved nutrition, the group initiated collective farming and prepared the land to grow a diverse mix of crops. Today, the farmers are cultivating black gram, horse gram, mustard, and a variety of vegetables such as cauliflower, radish, beans, coriander, and other leafy greens. In a short time, fresh leafy vegetables have entered local diets, reviving the tradition of homegrown produce after many years. This marks a significant transformation for Sorat, which had relied almost entirely on external markets for its daily vegetable supply for nearly two decades.
The transformation was enabled by knowledge-sharing from Reliance Foundation and financial support of about 42% of the total expenditure for solar fencing, in this participatory model, making the solution accessible to the group, while building sustainability of the effort. The farmers were also aided through demonstrations for better understanding.
Early success has motivated other individual farmers to restart cultivation on their own lands by investing in similar fencing solutions.
“We are children of farmers and returning back to farming after 20 years was made possible due to collective efforts of our fellow villagers and support from Reliance Foundation. I hope our success, encourages more people to embrace farming” says Madhusudan Lenka, a farmer from Sorat.
What was once a landscape defined by loss and human–animal conflict has become a vibrant, space of growth and rejuvenation, reflecting shared effort, renewed confidence, and enhanced food security. Villagers hope that in time those who migrated in search of work will return to Soarat, drawn by the opportunity to farm on their ancestral lands again.
Through its Rural Transformation initiatives, Reliance Foundation aims to uplift rural communities by enhancing livelihoods, fostering sustainable agriculture, empowering women, and building resilient community structures for water, nutrition, and livelihood security, reaching millions of farmers across the length and breadth of India. Reliance Foundation’s Rural Transformation programme has reached Over 2.22 crore individuals from more than 90,000 villages across India.
