The ELEMENT Nagaland Project under SoCRAN organised a one-day ‘Off-Taker Meet 2026’ at Hotel Vivor, Kohima, on October 7, bringing producers and market stakeholders together to strengthen value chains and improve market access for local products.
Secretary, Industries and Commerce and Project Director, ELEMENT, Kumar Ramnikant, IAS, highlighted Nagaland’s forests, farms and community-managed landscapes as important sources of livelihoods and economic opportunities. He identified coffee, honey, large cardamom, Naga chilli, black rice, millets, medicinal plants and wild fruits among products with potential for sustainable income.
Ramnikant said stronger value chains were needed to help communities derive greater economic benefits from these resources. He highlighted the project’s efforts to support producer groups through aggregation, decentralised coffee processing, centralised honey processing, quality and certification, branding and end-to-end enterprise development.
He said the project was working with stakeholders to address gaps in existing value chains, stressing that quality products needed to reach reliable buyers at fair and commercially viable prices. Producers, he said, required greater clarity on quality grades, certification, packaging, volumes, price benchmarks and delivery schedules, while buyers needed better visibility of supply capacity and consistency.
The meet also focused on certification, quality assurance, traceability, working capital and investment, with the aim of creating structured dialogue between producers and markets.
A presentation was delivered by ELEMENT Value Chain Expert Amarjit Lahkar. Deputy Project Director Kedino Zango delivered the welcome address, while Deputy Secretary, Agriculture, Chonpenthung Ezung, NCS, proposed the vote of thanks. An awareness video, “Project Awareness”, by Dreamz Unlimited was also released.