“Farmer’s market has made it possible to sell a good product with good price for farmers from remote areas”, said Dr. Anselm Meyer-Antz of Misereor. He recommended for a value chain and proposed to stabilise the market which can go beyond what it is now. It is a great initiative in Shillong city by Caritas India and her partner SSC for the for the promotion of indigenous and naturally grown food at the village level for the health of the younger generation.

Dr. Anselm Meyer-Antz was on a visit to Caritas India to discuss the Misereor supported programmes like U 3, JEEVAN EA, SAKSHAM, and FARM NE. He met all the programme incharges at Caritas India in New Delhi to get an overview of the programmes.

He visited FARM Northeast programme at Assam and Meghalaya along with Mr. Rajesh Upadhyay, HoD Programmes and Mr. Jonas Lakra, Zonal Manager, Northeast of Caritas India to witness the impact of the intervention.

The current phase of FARM programme focussed on revival and strengthening of traditional farming systems, Governance and Health Systems through People-Led Development (PLD) in the Northeast part of India. The programme has achieved notable results in terms of good farming systems, village governance systems, medicinal plants, traditional seed systems, and traditional medicine practitioners.

Dr. Anselm visited 4 villages in the programme area of the Bongaigaon Gana Seva Society (BGSS) in Assam and 2 villages in the programme area of Social Service Centre, Shillong (SSC) in Meghalaya who are partners of Caritas India. Most Rev. Thomas Pulloppallil DD, Bishop of Bongaigaon discussed the development scenario of the area.

He was happy to see that Bodo, Khasi, and Adivasi cultures being revived and the collective effort of the community in group farming, cleanliness campaigns, farmers market, indigenous seed being revived along with community welfare activities in both the states. He interacted with the community and learned about their transformation journey.

While visiting Social Service Centre, Shillong, he interacted with the farmers, women groups and community people. He was quite impressed to know about the intiatives of organic farming, millet cultivation, mushroom cultivation, vermin compost and bio-pest, farmers’ market, farmers’ outlet for better income, indigenous seeds and indigenous food.

“Marketing is undoubtedly a challenging task in given the project location and prevailing system but I am happy to see that the farmers are interested to go for a monthly farmers market with organic products where rates are fixed by the farmers”, expressed Dr. Anselm with Caritas India team.

He suggested that implementing partners should capacitate the farmers on economic analysis of their engagement in farming and marketing. Appreciating the collective effort of the community in the villages, he encouraged the team to strengthen this initiative.