Dimapur: The weaves and wafts of the region will be up for appreciation by a wider audience across the country soon.

The Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Ltd (Trifed) under the Union ministry of tribal affairs is organising a 10-day Aadi Mahotsav at Shree Durga Mandir hall here from Friday to promote tribal handicrafts and handlooms of the Northeast.

Tribal artisans from the northeastern states of Assam, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland have put up stalls with varieties of handicraft and handloom products in the exhibition-cum-sale festival.

The festival was inaugurated by Vikeoto Zhimo, the managing director of Nagaland State Cooperative Marketing and Consumers' Federation Ltd.

Addressing the inaugural programme, Zhimo hoped the festival would not only help to promote the handloom and handicrafts products of the indigenous people of the Northeast but would also facilitate the marketing of their products outside the region. This will in turn help in earning their livelihood, he added.

Regional manager, Trifed, Guwahati, M.R. Singh told reporters that the festival was organised here to bring all the tribal artisans of the region under one platform to promote their products. He said handlooms and handcrafts of the region are in high demand in the country. The artisans of the region are not aware of the value of their products, he added.

Singh said the federation would purchase the products displayed at the festival for sale in its 64 showrooms across the country.