Social Service Centre (SSC), Shillong is working to better connect smaller farms with urban consumers to give local produce a boost.

This was made possible through the Indigenous Food Fest organized on June 15, 2018, under FARM Northeast II programme. The fest aims to preserve, maintain and promote indigenous food resources and wild edibles available in the community.

The fest has offered the platform to the farmers to sell their products in the urban setup where consumers could buy locally produced food directly from growers. There was an encouraging response from both farmers and urban consumers as they expressed the need for such market on a regular basis. SSC has decided to begin a Farmers’ market as a trial and plans to conduct it monthly.

The idea of having farmers’ market started with a discussion and interaction with the farmers’ club along with the SSC Director. Poor farmers in the village sweat hard to earn their living, but they lack marketing facilities. The initiative of Farmers’ market can bring back smile to the village farmers. It is also one way of introducing and bringing back wild edibles from the village to the town.

Fr. Bernard Laloo, Director SSC shared that many of the wild edibles which have medicinal values and are very rich in micronutrients. But they are being neglected and forgotten by the urban community. This market will serve as a link between the rural community and the urban community in an attempt to bring back the pure traditional food back to the Khasi society that is organic by default. As the farmers produce only organic vegetables and wild edibles, the Farmers’ market can provide fresh vegetables to the urban consumers.

The stalls in the market will be on a rotation basis so that all the farmers’ club gets the chance to sell their products.  To bring diversity, different types of vegetables can be sold in the market for which farmers can themselves fix the price.

The first farmers’ market was organized on July 26, 2018, in collaboration with North East Slow Food & Agrobiodiversity Society (NESFAS). 12 stalls (7 stalls from SSC and 5 stalls from NESFAS) were put up in this market. More than 40 wild edibles and organically grown vegetables were sold.

Kwency Kharkongor, one of the farmer expressed her gratitude towards SSC for organizing the market that provides them with this opportunity that benefits them in terms of marketing their products as they are earning more than they sell it to the traders. SSC had also mobilized cloth carry bags, to stop the use of plastic.  Approximately 500 consumers turn up to buy the vegetables from the stalls.

On August 30, 2018, SSC organized the Second Farmers’ Market. Altogether 15 stalls displayed vegetables, wild edibles, indigenous food items, fruits, local larval fish, honey, local sausage and roasted meat and tea stall on local food. The Farmers’ Market restricts the use of plastic thereby indirectly promoting the campaign against plastic. They promote the use of local leaves after the exposure trip to Kandhamal. In the normal market usually it is the buyers who determine the price, but in the Farmers’ Market, the sellers determine the price in consultation with the staff of SSC.

The Farmers’ Market provides a forum for the farmers to sell their products. Amidst the hue and cry of the farmers for non-availability of marketing facilities and oppression of prices of their product, the Farmers’ Market is an opportunity for them to determine the price. Though this intervention is only a drop in the vast ocean, it will create a ripple effect in the future.