Making the farmers of Northeast India famous with Amazon

Zizira is an organisation based out of the scenic city of Shillong in Meghalaya. Their vision is to help thousands of farmers from the Northeast India region and connect them with their consumers directly. Most of these farmers live by the mountains in remote locations and in adverse conditons.In order to help these farmers earn sufficient income and help sustain their family Zizira sources crops and other food products from them, packs them and sells them on Amazon. Today, a family in Kerala can easily order a packet of Khasi sticky rice and ZIzira will fulfill their order.

Ibanshara: Hello my name is Ibanshara. I am a local from Shillong. We are here to make a difference and build a future for farmers. 70% of people (in India) depend on agriculture and farming for their livelihood. So that's where we saw the opportunity to unleash the potential of farmers from this region. That's how Zizira started in September 2015.

Khraw: My name is Khraw and I work with Zizira to help build relationships with farmers. And I also help identify farmers to source organic produce for Zizira. We source unique products from the farmers in the North East of India. We source it directly from the farmers and sell it online. Sometimes farmers are forced to return back from the markets with a lot of unsold produce.

Ibanshara: We launched our own portal called 'the Zizira store' but we were not successful at first. That's when we reached out and started looking towards Amazon. We didn't want to go through the hardships of having to brand ourselves initially.

Khraw: Through Amazon, the farmers are able to sell all of their produce and none of it remains unsold or turns into waste. That's how it becomes beneficial to the farmers. The people all over India and even the world can see that the products which comes from North East is very unique and is beneficial to both Zizira and Amazon. Here we have one of the farmers. His name is Gabriel.

Gabriel: Working with Zizira, I have hope that I can make something for my family. I have introduced my son, so he can take this forward in the future.

Ibanshara: We are isolated from the rest of India and so that fact that we are able to deliver the natural grown produce to rest of India is what makes Zizira really special. Amazon was actually a blessing in disguise for Zizira. Because it came at the right time when we were still figuring out what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go. With Amazon's presence we've been able to see a rise in sales which is one way for us to know that we are going in the right path. And we have big dreams of collaboration with Amazon because that is how people are getting to know about us and we also want to be an example, a role model not only to Meghalaya but also the rest of North East India.

Chorus: We are Zizira.