The occupational caste mali has a long history as gardeners and florist. They are known as horticulture specialists. Over the period of time they are more into vegetable cultivation principally for their cash needs. Here is a story of Malati Khillo, a marginal farmer from Maliguda village in the Pottangi Block of Koraput district in Odisha. She is a member of Annapurna Utpadaka Gosthi; a women producer group since last one year. Her family possesses a 2.32 acres of agriculture land in the downstream of a few small seasonal hill streams; 1.32 acre low land and 1 acre medium land. The hill streams provide critical irrigation support in the kharif season and partial irrigation support in the low water demanding crops in the rabi season. Despite limited and scarce water supply she never discouraged to carry on her farming activities, especially cash crops 

Malati Khilo has the advantage of a very productive family labour force of five people; her husband Chaitan Khillo, who is 47, her two sons and two daughters in laws. As a family of six they basically grow paddy, ginger, chilli, groundnuts, radish, bottle gourd, bitter gourd, pumpkin, mustard and coriander

As a tribal agrarian family they never tried to compare the reward from each crop based on market value and they had been cultivating as simply as the seasons repeat and habituated to do so like other families around them.

But the whole scenario changed when Malati became a member of a producer group and learned to emphasise on some crops over the rest which are more rewarding in certain time of the year in terms of cost effectiveness, more absorbing of family labour force and are handy based on available resources. That is what is called winner crops, and when a group of farmers produce it to a scale, they have more power over pricing and marketability of that particular product. During the summer of 2019, the PG members decided to grow chilli collectively 

She started nursery with 125gm Guntur Hope variety chilli seeds in 1 acre of land in the last week of January followed by plantation of seedlings in March. 

The detailed cost of production and different inputs in terms of labour and materials While the cost of production was Rs.36280.00, thotal revenue generated from the endeavour was Rs.120700.00. thus the profit from the effort stood at Rs.84420.00 The cost benefit ratio is 36280:84420 i.e. 1:2.33. This means when Rs.100/- is incurred during cultivation Rs.233/- can be earned as profit