The Farmer’s Hub, since its inauguration in 2024, has been operating on a Hub and Spoke model, with the main Hub at Sohiong C&RD Block Headquarter and its spoke at Krang. The hub supplies seasonal seeds like cabbage, cauliflower, beans, radish, carrot, coriander, chilli, and other agricultural tools such as knapsack, power weeder, etc. Till now, the total footfall in the hub is 300+ farmers.
The effort to support local farmers especially with the hub located at Sohiong has created a positive impact for the farmers as they no longer need to travel the long journey to Shillong JUST to purchase seeds. Now they can directly buy from the hub, which is located in two main locations. The location has been a game-changer for them and word-of- mouth amongst the people has boosted the sales in the hub. There is an increased demand for vegetable seeds from 1000 grams monthly (during the sowing months) in 2024 to 3000 grams monthly now.
Action plan: With the vision of helping farmers in better price realization, our partner, KhetiBatti Agro Pvt Ltd, emphasised that importance will be given to marketing of the products directly from the farmers in Krang and Sohiong. Hence, the produce from the hub (Sohiong and Krang) and Smit including carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, radish, beans etc., is taken to Brahmaputra Wholesale Market, Guwahati. They have been able to aggregate up to 2 tons (2000 kgs) daily and taken to Guwahati.
Challenges: Transportation and collection of produce from farms is one of the main challenges that the hub is facing. Resolving this issue will lessen the cost for transportation.
