PROJECT KRIMKRO
Creating a brand ecosystem for farmers in rural Meghalaya
TIME FRAME
LOCATION
4 Months
Garo Hills, Meghalaya
CLIENT
Bakdil, NGO in
Tura, Meghalaya
SCOPE OF WORK
Design Research,
Communication Design
ABOUT
The Krimkro Project was about identifying the existing ecosystem in which farmers in Garo Hills, Meghalaya have been selling their produce, and creating branding, packaging, and marketing solutions that would empower them with a dependable market route.
The findings of the research were that although farmers have great fresh produce (for eg turmeric, ginger, cashews, black pepper, fresh vegetables), they haven’t been able to sell it in the market for a fair price. There were several reasons for this, such as lack of market knowledge, exploitative middlemen and lack of post-harvest management of produce.
PROBLEM
STATEMENT
How might we help the farmers of Garo Hills
gain access to markets within the context of
limited financial and marketing literacy?
EXISTING ECOSYSTEM
Although farmers have great fresh produce, they haven’t been able to sell it in the market at fair prices. Lack of network connectivity, little to no means of transportation, irregular weather conditions, and constant market fluctuations are a daily reality for the average Garo farmer. Due to these reasons, Garo farmers are some of the most vulnerable farmer populations in India, with heavy dependencies on middlemen who exploit them by buying at unfair prices. Lack of market knowledge and post-harvest management add to the list of reasons why they don’t currently have selling power in the market.
The present reach of products has been limited to local markets. These markets are often saturated with several farmers from the neighbouring state of Assam, who come and sell their produce at cheaper rates than the local farmers. The existing packaging solutions of products are plastic containers with labels printed at local print shops, written in traditional Garo language.
CREATING
KRIMKRO
Existing development programs in Garo Hills have been restricted to limited financial aid and state-led training activities. The poor financial condition of the state government along with general poverty makes it difficult to depend upon state-led support.
The solution lies in community mobilization and genuine resource-based stakeholder involvement.
Building upon this basic theme, BAKDIL had taken the basic steps towards setting up an FPO (Farmer Producer Organization). The real challenge was to give a shape, perspective and market connect to these farmers.
The most critical element was to create a sense of ownership towards Krimkro. I started by providing a larger picture to the community members about the Krimkro project and their position in the entire scheme of things.
We followed it up with documentation of the cropping pattern/cycle, agri produce data, farming practices, marketable surplus and available marketing channels.
In the third phase, I took up visual communication-related work. This comprised of visual representation comprising logos, packaging materials and solutions and branding. All the required food certifications were obtained.
Krimkro today is a living brand with the ability to sell products online.
THE
KRIMKRO MODEL
As part of the new ecosystem, I worked with the community and Team BAKDIL to create the “Krimkro” brand, which means ‘moving forward together’ in the traditional Garo language. The strategy was to bring all the FPOs together along with their produce (black pepper, salted cashews, turmeric powder, ginger powder, and several varieties of pickles) and unify them under the common brand of Krimkro.
The solution matrix had the following components:
A. Develop a unique brand with an emphasis on ‘organic by default’
B. Empower existing FPOs with branding and packaging solutions which not only communicated the quality of their products but also made them feel proud about what they were producing,
C. Put in place basic agri processing and packaging for the organic produce,
D. Shift focus from traditional local markets to a hybrid of local and national markets,
E. Embrace both offline and online channels for sales.
WHY CREATE
AN FPO?
An FPO, or Farmer Producer Organisation
is an organisation where the members are the farmers themselves. An FPO provides end-to-end support and services to the small farmers, and covers technical services, marketing, processing, and others aspects of agriculture inputs.
FPOs serve the purpose of accelerating development in real areas, wherein the farmers don't have to depend solely on their governments and civil society organisations to progress.
It is a democratic solution to development, that empowers the farmers to create their own business solutions, and form a deeper sense of ownership about their farming produce.
vs.
GARO HILLS MOODBOARD
BRANDING
Logo explorations done before finalising the Krimkro logo. The logo needed to communicate the meaning 'moving forward together', and display a sense of community.
PACKAGING
INTENT
The packaging needed to convey the brand values that Krimkro stood for, and what the customers were supporting when they would buy a Krimkro product. These values were communicated through humanising the packaging, by showing a closeup of farmer hands holding the produce. The backdrops were lush photos of Meghalaya, indicating the richness of where the produce was coming from.
While selecting packaging materials, I needed to keep in mind the limited financial and human resources, as the farmers would package the products themselves manually. Stand-up paper pouches were selected in different capacities of 100g and 250g. Simple sticker labels were printed separately to be stuck on the pouches according to supply needs.
PACKAGING
The first edition of Krimkro products has basic stand-up paper pouches, with stickers done with offset printing. We also created pickle packaging, which was stuck on 200g glass jars.
There were 2 stickers per pouch, one ahead and one behind. These were done in different sizes, for 100g and 250g packets.
FRONT PACKAGING
BACK PACKAGING
BEHIND
THE SCENES
The completion of this project was a journey of figuring out aspects of design and of life I was confronted with for the first time. It has provided valuable insights into what design means to me, and what role I see myself playing in the development ecosystem.
There was trial and error involved in the final decision of the packaging. The images below are an attempt to capture the process involved behind the final amalgamation of the project.
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