Billing for your organic store in Nagaland
King chilli by the gram, a sack of rajma and a family's udhaar, all on one bill on your phone.
From a sack of rajma to the village shop that wants only a part of it
A crop you have never sold, added while the farmer stands at the counter
When a grower walks in with perilla, kiwi or a new kind of bean, add it as an item at once, with its unit and a rate. Put the weight he brought into the count, and the first bill can be made the same afternoon. No loose slip of paper to be entered later.
The one harvest's sacks, and the July decision to ration a good seller
Millets, rajma and glutinous rice come in from the one hill harvest, and the sacks are all you have until the next. Put each sack's kilos in as stock, and every sale takes its kilos off. In July the phone shows how many kilos are left, and you decide then whether to ration a good seller before the lot runs out.
A village shop that wants your king chilli but not a whole sack
Small shops in the villages around want a few kilos of king chilli and rajma, and they do not want to travel with cash. They apply on Bharatrath to buy from you on credit. You approve the ones you know, their orders arrive on your phone, and what they owe sits on one page.
Why a Nagaland organic shelf is harder to explain than to stock
Three lots of ginger on the shelf by the third week
A Nagaland organic store sells what the hills grow, and ginger, turmeric and rajma come in lot after lot through the year. In the first week one lot of ginger sits on the shelf and you know it. By the third week three lots of ginger stand side by side, and nobody, not even you, can say which packet came from which lot, and the guess is said with a smile.
One harvest in sacks that sells a kilo at a time
Perilla seeds go by the handful, and each handful is a small weighing that nobody notes. The seeds, and the millets and rajma beside them, come from one hill harvest and the sack cannot be refilled next week. Whatever the handfuls take from the lot is gone until next year.
A family that buys for health argues over a smudged total
A family that buys organic buys for health and not for price. It takes the month's rice, spices and a jar of something together and settles at the end. The notebook has the family under two spellings, and a smudged total makes the month-end talk long. A loyal customer who came for trust can leave over one figure.
Tools for a shop that sells ginger, millets and king chilli
Bills on your phone
A bill with the grower's village written in each rajma's name, so the buyer knows where it grew.
Godown stock
The rajma and millet sacks from the hill harvest, counted in the godown apart from the jars on the shelf.
Low stock warnings
A warning when the wild honey jars fall low, before the visitors' season is over.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the homestay that takes honey and black rice for its guests and settles when the season ends.
Sell to other businesses
Small shops in Kohima apply to take your black rice and honey on credit, and you choose which of them to serve.
Your own online shop
A page of what is in stock, to send to customers in Dimapur who want ginger and chillies and ask what you have this week.
Where the organic stock of a Nagaland shop is talked about
Customers bring the names of their own districts to an organic counter. Three that come up often.
- Wokha is known for oranges, passion fruit, plums and bananas, and its local market sells organic vegetables all year.
- Phek has made kiwi its One District One Product, and also grows tree tomato, persimmon and cabbage, and keeps honey.
- In Tuensang the common jhum crops are rice, maize, millet and kholar bean, grown in the shifting fields.
Farmer groups who put their market stalls and online shop in one place
Questions Nagaland organic stores ask
A farmer group brings 50 kilos of king chilli and wants to be paid when it sells, not now. Where do I keep that?
Give the group a page as a supplier. Note the 50 kilos you took in, and when you pay them part or all, write it on the page. The page shows what is still owed.
I sell rajma loose by the kilo and also in 500 gram bags. Does it need two items?
Yes. The bags are counted on their own, so you see how many 500 gram bags are left apart from the loose rajma in the sack. A customer who asks for a bag is not told yes from the sack's weight.
In the lean months the rajma is nearly gone. Whose sacks do I ask for first?
Ask first the farmer whose sacks went first last year, when the harvest comes. The one whose sacks stayed on the shelf can send less.
Relatives far away ask for Naga rajma and honey to be packed for a traveller. Can I take the order before he comes?
Yes. Weigh the Naga rajma and the honey for the traveller and put the weights on the bill. The pack is tied and billed before he calls, so he only collects it.
Organic hectares and Naga Organics: what stands behind a Nagaland organic shelf
In July 2023 an agriculture official said 13,000 ha in Nagaland are designated organic, 10,000 ha more are being converted for certification, and 23,000 ha are under natural farming.
Under the Naga Organics brand, the crops sold include ginger, turmeric, large cardamom, king chilli, glutinous rice, rajma, perilla, millets, kiwi and pineapple, a Department of Agriculture official said in 2023. These are the lots that come to a Naga organic shelf in sacks and jars.
Nagaland's agriculture department says the MoVCD scheme backs organic value chains from seeds and certification to collection, processing, marketing and brand building.