Hearts and hands behind the green vegetables and fruits

Alice Yhoshü
KOHIMA, AUGUST 22

THE fresh green vegetable and fruit stalls by the roadside come as life savers on the not so pleasant roads of Nagaland.
Not only are these locally produced products healthy to consume they support a chain of local farmers and vendors, most of whom are engaged in the business because they know no way to support their families.
Although the prices are a little high as compared to traditional markets, people do not seem to hesitate to buy as they prefer fresh and organic farm products.Along with the demand for the goods, more people who sell their yield in far-flung places are relocating closer to bigger towns.
Kohima is no exception to this trend. Popular demand for local agricultural produce in the state capital appears to have fuelled the increase in number of people involved in the business in the recent years. These road side vendors buy fresh vegetables grown in surrounding villages and sell them here.
As with the majority of those who are in the trade, most of the vendors here too get involved in selling vegetables on the roadsides to earn extra cash to support their families.
For Vishie-u, a 67 year old widow who sits in a small corner of a sidewalk at Razhu Point area in Kohima selling local tomatoes and green vegetables, life has not been too kind on her but she takes things gracefully and claims that she is content with what she does. She says that after her husband passed away, she met with a car accident and can hardly work in the fields anymore. She also has family members who are unwell so she tries to earn money to support them by buying fresh farm vegetables from nearby northern Angami villages and sell them from her little spot.
*Anai is 23 years old and she has started selling vegetables brought from Wokha district earlier this year. She sits quietly near the footpath between Old NST and Razhu Point Kohima and sells different kinds of vegetables like ladies fingers, cabbage, green chillies and bitter gourd, to name a few. Her husband drives a local taxi in Kohima and she says she got into the vegetable trade so as to contribute what she earns to help her husband run their family. She sells an average of vegetables worth Rs.300-400 per day.
Another hotspot for fresh vegetables in Kohima is the “BOC” area located near the Nagaland Police Headquarters. Vegetable vendors including both locals and non-locals line up along the NH-29 roadside every afternoon, selling farm yields mostly brought in from Mao region and Jalukie area. Among them is *Niholi, mother of 4, who hauls several sacks of vegetables daily to her spot. She says she has been selling vegetables and supporting her children’s academic costs for years now. “My eldest two have already graduated, one is doing postgraduate studies,” she beams proudly. “Everything has become very expensive nowadays. Most of us here are in the business to earn money to pay for our children’s education,” she adds.
According to Megou, a 40 year old widow with three children who earns a living selling seasonal farm products, “We suffer loss during rainy days as people hardly venture outside to buy from us.” Other than that, she asserts that on an ordinary day, business picks up as people head home from work.
For octogenarian Anino who sells her own farm yields, it is better to arrive at Kohima early in the morning, sell her vegetables and return to her village in Mao. She says that she has been doing the same for over 10 years. She is generous with her bunching, be it spring onions, mustard leaves, cabbage or edible plants that are grown wild.
When asked how she travels all the way from her village to Kohima, she promptly says public transportation has improved over the years. She says that her children and grandchildren keep urging her to stop the business and retire at home but she is adamant that this has become a part of her life and that she will continue for as long as she can stand on her feet .
The roadside vegetable trading is not as easy as it may seem to most people. Besides lack of sheds to sit under, which is so with many of the locations, these vegetable sellers have no access to basic amenities like water, toilet and other facilities.