Community Based Organizations (CBOs) Empower Arunachal Pradesh

In the rural areas, challenges such as scattered market, irregular demands, and transportation bottlenecks often impede farmers and entrepreneurs from getting the right value for their products. In order to overcome these challenges, North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Society (NERCRMS) , under the active support of Ministry of Development of Northeast Region (MDoNER) has formed the Community Based Organizations (CBOs).

At present, these CBOs are doing great work. Few instances prove this.

In Arunachal Pradesh, CBOs are working towards enhancing the supply chain management at the district level.

Replacing the vicious chain of middlemen, the CBOs source raw spices such as ginger, turmeric directly from the individual farmers. This gives the farmers a ready platform to sell their produce at competitive market prices. As the raw materials are sourced directly from the field to the processing unit, their quality and freshness also remains intact, giving the final products an edge over the other competition in the market.

Post production and labelling, CCRMS in collaboration with local Co-operative Society Ltd. market the products through networks of local vendors and also through Rural Marts & Haats of NABARD. Adding to the campaign of Vocal for Local, the initiative is giving a major boost to the promotion of local products & strengthening the business eco-system at the district level.

Similarly, NERCRMS has paved the way for women empowerment by providing them with opportunity for sustainable livelihood opportunities.

Ms. Vavah, a 28 year old, successfully expanded her piggery with the aid of her grant. The number of pigs increased from 5 to 30 during the project’s duration. Ms Vavah, a mother of two children and the wife of a wood trader, Mr Seikhogin Baite. She used the proceeds from the sale of these pigs to purchase GI Sheets and other materials for the construction of her house, the enlargement of the Pig Sty, clothing, pig feeds, and other everyday household needs. She also purchased more piglets, bringing her total number of pigs to 35. (2 breeding pigs, 18 fattening pigs and 15 piglets).

Mrs. Vavah was happy about the financial support she received from the project and additional support from her husband and father in-law to start up with 5 piglets. She sold her pigs in batch wise for every seven month time @ Rs. 14,000/- per pig (average) she already sold out 30 pigs till now. She spoke about the needs for enhancement of knowledge on vaccination of pigs especially if one needs to increase or scale up pig rearing. “The market is good and the demand for pigs is high. My wish is to scale up to 50-60 pigs in the next two years.”

She was happy and proudly said, “I owned a gold Chain from my earning through pig rearing” with a smile full of satisfaction on her face.

She further expresses her gratitude by saying that “I am thankful to NERCORMP Chandel, Centre for Women and Girls and especially my village NaRMG leaders for providing me this opportunity. Now as I have my own source of income and I feel more secured and independent. I am no longer need to depend on my husband for every expense.