Guwahati, June 13: Two Guwahati-based NGOs have joined hands under a project to roll out at least 100 mobile vegetable carts across the city to link farmers to the market and provide farm-fresh products to consumers.
Under the project, the NGOs - Satej Axom and Usgravika - will leverage their expertise in their domain to form a 100-member team of producers, supply chain managers and vendors.
"Under the project, we will roll out 10 three-wheel vegetable carts before July 15. I have designed the paddle carts, which will be manufactured by Usgravika at its factory in Bonda. We have formed a team with members who will be monitoring their departments, right from production, managing the supply chain to distribution," Bandip Dutta, a mechanical engineer and president of Satej Axom, told The Telegraph yesterday.
Satej Axom, which runs a fair-price outlet in the Ulubari area, has for the past year mobilised over 1,000 farmers and entrepreneurs across 10 districts of the state to associate with in the form of seeking technical advice during production, financial aid and training.
"A Netherlands-based organisation has come forward to lend both financial and technical assistance to develop a business model that can be sustained in the long run," Dutta said.
Since 2009, Usgravika has been rolling out over 5,000 rickshaws in and around the city and will provide assistance regarding the manufacture of carts and micro-finance to the vendors for procuring the carts. Each cart will cost between Rs 13,000 and Rs 15,000.
"We have the parts ready to assemble at least 50 such carts in our factory at Bonda," Putul Sarma, president of Usgravika, said.
The carts will have space for at least six chambers where vegetables will be sorted. It will be equipped with electronic weighing machines and LED lights among others.
"Though the idea of such a cart is not new, we have seen projects getting stuck midway because of the absence of a proper business model. However, here we are looking at plugging those gaps, be it in back-end support or devising a sustainable business model," Dutta said.
"We had earlier approached the Guwahati Municipal Corporation to join hands with us given that there is a shortage of market space in the city with matters made worse by a number of vendors encroaching public spaces to sell their fare. But the proposal did not make headway," he said.
The carts will move across the city, including residential apartments. "The rates at which the vegetables are to be sold will be reasonable as well," Dutta said.
Last month, the Assam State Agriculture Marketing Board rolled out four mobile outlets across eight locations in the city as part of Dispur's measures to check prices of vegetables.
"We also have a long-term plan to approach government departments to provide space to design markets scientifically and in a way to accommodate more vendors," he said.
