July 10th, 2015

.....news from the East
Happiness is building a strong team of young entrepreneurs!

For the past few months, Maina Dutta and Pabitra Bora have been involved in the development of an organic demonstration garden and training centre near Jorhat, Assam.  The project is an initiative of Kakojan College, NEADS (North east Effected Area Development Society) and Fertile Ground:  East/West Sustainability Network.   

Maina works with NEADS and is coordinating the project, and Pabitra is a small tea grower who is transitioning to organic production.

Since it opened, the centre has been attracting students, farmers, small tea growers, educators, self-help group members and many other people interested in learning more about organic farming and tea cultivation.

Recently, Maina and Pabitra connected with Jaba Borgohain, a young entrepreneur based in Dibrugarh.  Jaba has a strong interest in grassroots innovations.  She looks after producer relations and communications for Flavour Nomads, a new network that provides information about commodity products, from crop to table, producer to consumer. 

Over the last few weeks, Maina, Pabitra and Jaba have been meeting with groups of students to discuss a wide range of opportunities for future employment, including some exciting opportunities linked to growing, producing and marketing organically-grown food and tea.

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Thanks must go to the project partners - Kakojan College, NEADS NGO, and Fertile Ground - for bringing us all together, and to the funders of this initiative.  They include 

• Rotary Clubs from District 5020 (Vancouver Island, BC Canada and NW Washington State, USA, 
• Mili Dutta, the Assam Foundation of North America and the Powderhorn Creek neighbourhood, and
  
• Fertile Ground:  East/West Sustainability Network and their supporters - World Commuity, Edible Island Whole Foods and many individual donors!