Session 61 summary
Zeinorin loves introducing herself as an indigenous person and where she comes from. She comes from Tangkhul Naga Tribe in Northeast India and that particular region she is from has the longest armed conflict in the world which is still ongoing. Her hometown, Ukhrul is known as the hot bed for insurgency and she remembers seeing gunshots, a lot of economic strikes and a lot of things that became so natural and numb as though it was not a problem and is cut off from almost everything. Now man-made climate change is affecting livelihoods like never before due to various developmental projects which are really not suitable for indigenous habitat. So, given the background, the upbringing and the reality now, Zeinorin feels that the failing and slow system she has been living with as well as the frustration followed by pandemic, led her to start a farming movement where she can share indigenous flavour to the world and elevate their livelihood and share their stories.
Zeinorin says that the thing with selling indigenous goods is that a lot of people do not know about it but if a very good story can be struck behind it then it could be a very great niche product. That is where Zeinorin has started the farming movement within her organization. For her it became a mission to ensure food security among indigenous communities and engage with farming and farmers to generate better income and also to amplify their voices. Apart from that the need to protect indigenous seeds have become an important thing because other variety and GMO seeds are available at a cheaper prizes and that is where indigenous people lose out. Zeinorin played a role in painting her hometown Ukhrul as the land of clean air, blue skies, and tasty produces, where some of the produces are so unique that they have been given Geographical Integrated tag, which means that product is only found in that place and micro climate. Before Hill Wild, in her town specifically, there are indigenous products one can find only within the borders of the state but since inception the people have succeeded in connecting to the global market place and giving better livelihood to farmers for e.g. if they sell smaller amount in the local, they find global market place where it can be sold at a better amount. This sort of farmers are affected by climate change and people are so much into the indigenous farming is because the kind of land, the kind of situation, and the kind of method they give which blends with nature. So, indigenous people have calibrated this certain old age technique to revive climate smart agriculture. Zeinorin holds great values being an indigenous person, working with indigenous farmers and giving inspiration through this journey.
Hill Wild works with indigenous farmers in Northeast India where majority of rural areas (about 80%) still lives in poverty. Hill Wild now works with 2000 very small land holder farmers to produce premium spices, fruits and crops where they fetch better price for the farmers in the market and during the off season where they don’t plant spice they train a lot of the farmers to grow vegetables which are consumed in the local market.
Zeinorinstarted in 2017, the starting point for her was naïve but it was a true need for her to be financially independent so that she could employ herself, so that she could employ further but now it has evolved in a way that Hill Wild’s vision is to eradicate extreme poverty in rural indigenous community through entrepreneurship.
The business model of how they are working is that: they offer a complete solution based model. Indigenous people are victimized always as though they don’t have a solution, so Hill Wild’s offer is very solution based. Like what solution works for a certain village. They offer a complete solution based model starting with seed provision (they provide seeds through their seed bank), financial assistance (through their credit linkage scheme), to some farmers they give financial assistance and work which is the best intervention as sometimes farmers have beautiful harvest but the month before the harvest the pest attacks and everything is gone. This kind of intervention is done through Hill Wild’s indigenous and natural method experts with whom they partnered and also other government resource centre where they can get those information as well as marketing and packaging support through their operation team to the farmers. This solution is very entrepreneurship solution which has lifted people out from poverty and not only helping them with earning income. Surprisingly even though Northern India has a very agricultural economy and agricultural place, a lot of the produce still comes from the outside. Right now, apart from the manufacturing of the dry fruits, chocolates and confectionaries that Hill Wild does, they also farm together with the farmers. The spices, fruits, nuts and seeds are processed and packaged into branded products and sold in India as well as export to a few countries they have started working with. Apart from a very transactional business generating revenue, they are also looking to ensure food security. Their region is a biodiversity hot spot and contrary to that rural people face shortage of food, nutrition and many live below poverty line. So, with small interventions like this change can be seen in the local market scenario with more local produce, local vegetables with regular supply, and the amazing part of it is that chefs are also becoming more aware of indigenous ingredients and even retailers who were initially reluctant to place more orders for this kind of indigenous food are coming again and again and clients from abroad especially are giving more attention and business to indigenous spice and food.
They have worked from the grassroots level using their soft skills, using their solution centric approach and using their collaboration and mindful partnerships with amazing organizations out there.Talking about sustainable development goals, Zeinorin says that they are in alignment with the SDG 1, 2 and 8. Right now they are working with around 50 villages, mostly in Manipur but also beyond it like in Meghalaya, Nagaland, etc. The first thing that they did was identifying villages to transform based on their research data of marginalized farmers in poverty with almost no access to banking facilities or financial literacy. After identifying that they linked it to ‘resource and knowledge centre for crops’ because it is a huge priority for them because of losing some heirloom indigenous varieties due to easier availability of genetically modified seeds. Their community seed bank intervenes and assures farmers to provide best seeds. Zeinorin loves collecting seeds, documenting them, knowing where they come from, their nature, the story behind it, where it is best grown, the origin and that hobby led her to create a small seed bank deeply focused on indigenous seeds. Personally she has travelled to more than 60 villages for seeds that are best indigenous seeds and also climate resilient. This has led Zeinorin to preserve 84 types of indigenous seeds so far. The third thing which they do is the financial assistance with financial literacy approach. A lot of the farmers do not know many things about financial literacy so they also give them this kind of training and also some assistance. The reason for this process to be developed is because of the nature of farmers spending all the money during harvest stills and utilising everything in the same season leaving no money for the next season. So Zeinorin’s team started teaching them financial literacy and how to save money, how to make money out of that and how to keep it safe for the next season and if given financial assistance then how to utilise that. The soft approach not only makes them smarter but it also allows to share a responsibility of sustainable finance. The 4ththing is the plant doctors, scientists, technologist in collaboration to intervene during pest attack and diseases, also sometimes they have to understand soils and ensuring good harvest. With the indigenous communities, it is a folklore narration kind of thing, where the chief selects a piece of land saying- ‘we will go to this place for farming’ and it is no proven fact that the soil is good for certain crops and they will go whether it is good or not. So small interventions like understanding the soil, what kind of things would be good there which really helps. The most important part in all this social impact work is that if one does not give an assurance of buying better products or getting them better revenue or generating a good market for them, which often implies that all the work that is done is demotivating for farmers because they do not know what to sell, some can sell on their own but not everyone. So Zeinorin’s marketing support with a very wide networking is the real assurance for a long term transformation. She believes in generating revenue and bringing hope to farmers, to understand that their crops are appreciated and holds value, and her team creates such opportunities. Their innovative or unique work can also be explained in 5 sentences- This unique work is very simple just the way they implement it and how it is effective region centric, which is different. They really highlight the traceability of the products as well as transparency in its origin which gives knowledge and motivates the society or the village to get the Geographical Indication tag for certain spices.If some spices are not able to get that then they also help them to safeguard indigenous knowledge on how the crop arrives, where it is planted, how it is planted, how unique it is, by documentation of the knowledge. They also work on value added products through the produces because it is really good for marketing. They also value added products through their indigenous produces, which is quite unique and the approach is always custom made for different villages and very solution centric because one village, even if they are neighbours, have different psychological understanding or aspect of agriculture or what suits best for them. So for every village they do ‘tailor-made’ kind of thing and since they believe in community leadership, they harness on such strengths to actually motivate and encourage farmers. They harness community leadership like engage or grow a leader from that village so that the team can communicate with them to and fro to build such trust. Their focus is to navigate farming community to become a movement of its own, especially an indigenous farming sector and micro-entrepreneurship. So, all this impact work they have been doing with the proven model and its replicative nature they won the farmers to start become micro-entrepreneurs where they can sustain on their own with or without the team’s intervention in the long run.
Zeinorin says that working from a rural sector takes a toll on someone because they face restrictions with a lot of things. But for her, she is deeply motivated by humanity, compassion and placing individual first and she doesn’t believes in finding solution just with one means but finding different ways to bring one solution.
About being a Kofi Annan Changemaker-people are a very religional being, so I am also in a crossroads of life where besides being a better changemakers. She is deciding what kind of person she wants to be and in this journey it was around last year she was exposed to historian Kofi Annan which was the best gift she received so far. Her team was chosen as Kofi Annan Changemaker, where exceptional young leaders around the world were selected on a very strict basis and given a chance to dialogue with and sit on council with experienced leaders and friends of Kofi Annan on issues of deep concern and also to carry on the legacy of Kofi Annan. This kind of exposure also gives Zeinorin a lot of opportunity to amplify her voice because not often does one see indigenous voices out there, so this kind of amplification really elevates indigenous work. She also came across very unique code of conduct; in her community, farming is wealth shared by the whole community with the concept of equal wealth distribution. This value became a perspective for her: the whole village farming on a community land with the concept of same earning for everyone, i.e. equal wealth distribution, which is not often seen. She sees her work as a bond where if she thrives, her community will thrive and vice versa. Be it in agriculture, be it in storytelling, etc. if they are from the similar region and a tribal person, they need a collective strength, where they can come together to tell their story in a huge unification mode.
About the Speaker
Zeinorin Angkang
She is an Entrepreneur& Kofi Annan Changemaker 2021. She is an indigenous woman from the Tangkhul Naga Tribe of India with a strong commitment to eradicate extreme poverty and champion the cause of Indigenous people. She founded her own company Hill Wild where they are working to transform the lives of indigenous marginalized farmers of North East India through entrepreneurship. Hill Wild is a story of two people with a common love for food and a noble vision for Ukhrul in Manipur. Hill Wild started in the winter of 2017 when Zeinorin and Leiyolan decided to venture into food sector that truly aims at uplifting farmers, artisans and transform Ukhrul, their native place. Since then, Hill Wild has produced chocolates infusing it with locally found nuts and fruits taking a spin on this decadent confectionary. There have been a lot of challenges being located in somehow a remote corner of Northeast Manipur but Hill Wild has been pushing relentlessly along with the local people involved in this transformative chain. Hill Wild now works with 200 farmers not only for chocolates but also for spices and dried fruits. Hill Wild is proud of Ukhrul and sees itself as a key player in transforming it.
About Hill Wild
Hill Wild is a story of two people with a common love for food and a noble vision for Ukhrul in Manipur. Hill Wild started in the winter of 2017 when Zeinorin and Leiyolan decided to venture into food sector that truly aims at uplifting farmers, artisans and transform Ukhrul, their native place. Since then, Hill Wild has produced chocolates infusing it with locally found nuts and fruits taking a spin on this decadent confectionary. There have been a lot of challenges being located in somehow a remote corner of Northeast Manipur but Hill Wild has been pushing relentlessly along with the local people involved in this transformative chain.
Hill Wild now works with 200 farmers not only for chocolates but also into spice and dried fruits.Hill Wild is proud of Ukhruland sees itself as a key player in transforming it.
To know more about Hill Wild, visit
www.hillwild.com
