Guwahati, Aug. 29: Organic produce, grown by nearly 200 families in three villages of Khetri area on the outskirts of Guwahati, have entered the online market with a local agriculture-based start-up launching a portal recently for the consumers of the city.
The firm, Lauhitya Livelihood Pvt Limited, which sells organically grown vegetables, fruits and other food items at two stalls here under the brand name Organic Majuli, provided training to farmers in Dimoria, Bahtola and Amguri villages, following which the farmers started selling their products here.
"We have six farms on a 30-bigha land, including ponds and dairy farms. The farmers have been provided training on how to prepare organic manure using cow dung and without the use of any pesticides. Since their products have got a good response at two of our stalls at Six Mile and Amigaon here, we have decided to offer them an online platform to reach out to more customers. We have got more than 30 orders online from the time we launched the online sales facility on Thursday," Lauhitya Livelihood managing director Manash Chaliha told The Telegraph today.
Chaliha, a BTech, worked with the World Bank and PricewaterhouseCoopers for six years before starting the firm in 2014. The firm aspires to empower farmers in rural Assam with nutritional needs and income security, besides creating an eco-system to promote social entrepreneurship. The core team members of the firm include young boys and girls who have done their MBA and MCA and worked in various companies before launching the start-up. The firm has also provided training to more than 1,000 farmers in different parts of Assam and Meghalaya on organic farming practices. "Our initiative is on the line of Centre's plan to make the Northeast the organic hub of the country," Chaliha said.
Spices like black pepper, ginger, turmeric and dry chilli, dairy products like fresh milk and paneer, black rice, joha (scented) rice, bao (brown) rice and fruits and vegetables are being sold online and delivered home in the city.
The start-up is also offering customers an opportunity to visit their firms in Khetri to see the organic products and buy from the field. "People can see with their own eyes how vegetables are grown organically and thus remove their suspicion about whether the food items they are buying from us are fully organic or not. They can catch fish in the ponds, visit the dairy farms and the vegetable fields. Children will come to know how our farmers grow their produce while a family can have an outing. They can also have food prepared by women of the Tiwa community who live there," Chaliha said.
