BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to make fresh vegetables available to low income groups, particularly slum dwellers and rural poor at affordable prices, eKutir, the makers of VeggieKart online retail store, is set to launch a VeggieLite initiative soon.
VeggieLite hubs will be established in villages and urban slums to sell fresh vegetables to low income households at cheaper than market prices.
The hubs would be managed by women serving a dual purpose of not only empowering the weaker sex but also enabling better services to the customers.
VeggieLite hubs, targeted to commence operations in August 2014, will create a distribution channel for farmers to sell fresh vegetables directly to low income groups. It is an extension of eKutir’s VeggieKart initiative which creates sustainable market linkages for rural farmers to sell their produce. This sustainable and holistic approach aims to improve the diet quality and enhance livelihoods of the poorest communities while creating jobs for women, founder KC Mishra said.
The project will be implemented by eKutir in collaboration with Wholesome Wave, USA and McGill Center for the Convergence of Health and Economics (MCCHE), a recipient of Grand Challenges India, 2014 and supported by the Gates Foundation, USAID and Department of Biotechnology.
An MoU was also signed between the three partnering organisations during the ‘Convergent Innovation Workshop on calling up Agriculture-Nutrition linkage’ here on Tuesday. The project has been awarded under the Grand Challenges programme ‘Achieving Healthy Growth through Agriculture and Nutrition’.
“We are quite excited to be associated with eKutir, which also believes in the principles of convergent innovation,” said Prof Laureate from the Department of Convergent Innovation, McGill University after signing of the MoU.
The Wholesome Wave is set to pump in innovative practices from the USA to the VeggieLite initiative to make it more successful in catering to the target population, Founder Daniel Ross said.
Healthy move
■ VeggieLite hubs will be established in villages and urban slums to sell fresh vegetables to low income households at cheaper than market prices
■ The hubs would be managed by women serving a dual purpose of not only empowering the weaker sex but also enabling better services to the customers