Household goods made of cane and bamboo on display at the fair on Wednesday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Sept. 1: For the gourmets of the city, there is good news. Mouth-watering traditional delicacies have started invading the city market, courtsey the rural fair hosted by the district rural development authority (DRDA) of the state government at NEDFi Haat.

Hurum, sewai, joha and komal rice, produced by 26 self-help groups from Upper Assam’s Dibrugarh district were the main attraction of the seven-day Gramya Mela.

Inspired by the adage, self-help is the best help, the groups from development blocks like Kowang, Tengakhat, Panitola and Joypur put up stalls to sell their indigenous produce.

The products on display at the fair include handloom items like gamochas and mekhela sadars woven from cotton, pat and muga and other dress materials. Exotic collections of handicraft items carved out of driftwood are also on display.

The main attractions of the fair, however, are the traditional Assamese food items like dry fish and hurum.

“We are very excited as we are taking part in a fair for the first time. This is a great opportunity to market our products in Guwahati,” said Kanaklata Gogoi of a self-help group from the Joypur development block of Dibrugarh.

The products of Gogoi’s all-women group ranges from tea packets to wooden showpieces to a fish powder with medicinal value.

For Dalim Kumar Gogoi of the Prerona self-help group from Tengakhat, the biggest challenge after forming the group one-and-a-half-year ago was to find a platform to market their products. “We work from home and came to Guwahati hoping that this fair will be a stepping stone for us.”

Prerona was adjudged as the third best stall at another DRDA-sponsored fair in Dibrugarh recently. Gogoi hopes to improve on their previous performance in Guwahati.

Commissioner to the chief minister B.K. Gohain inaugurated the fair this afternoon.

Monoj Keot, a member of a self-help group from Chabua, said the fair would give them exposure at a reasonable rate.

A senior NEDFi official said it was the federation’s policy to give priority to fairs organised by self-help groups to boost cottage and smallscale industries of the region.