Women of a self-help group (SHG) in Mahabubnagar have entered the Guinness World Records for their feat of rolling 8 crore seed balls, made for improving greenery in the district, in 10 days and making the longest sentence with seed balls on Monday.
Representative of the Guinness World Records, Rishinath watched the formation of longest sentence with the seed balls virtually, and presented the certificate. The women formed the sentence – Two crore seed balls made and planted by SHG Women, Transform Mahabubnagar into Hetero Green Belt – with 73,918 seed balls between 10.40 a.m. and 12.35 p.m. to enter the Guinness World Records.
Minister for Excise and Tourism V. Srinivas Goud and District Collector S. Venkata Rao complimented the women and said the record set by them would be dedicated to the ‘Green India Challenge’. The seed balls were being broadcast in difficult and hilly terrains and other government and forest lands to improve the green cover in the district as part of the Haritha Haaram programme.
According to officials, the SHG women of rural areas were given the task last year and they rolled 1.18 crore seed balls in 10 days. The district administration has, however, involved the SHG women in urban areas, too, this time and given them the task of making 2 crore seed balls in 10 days with 1.70 crore target given to the rural SHGs and the remaining 30 lakh to urban SHGs.
District Project Manager of DRDA A. Naga Mallika told The Hindu that a total of 10,560 women SHGs in the rural areas with a membership of 1,28,560 women were involved in the exercise this year. Accordingly, a day’s training was given to the mahila samkhya leaders on July 1 and seed ball making was taken up from the next day with the women sourcing suitable soil and cattle dung locally and seed supply from DRDA.
“We have procured some seed locally and some quantity was sourced from traders in combined Adilabad district,” she said, explaining that neem, tamarind, custard apple, banyan, juvvi (ficus virens), raavi (sacred fig), babool (acacia arabica), medi (cluster fig) and few other varieties were sourced to make seed balls as they withstand moisture stress.
