Exhibitions of ormas – an effective approach for promoting rural products and sustainability of rural producers

Exhibitions are organised by ORMAS on a regular basis at different times of the year with an aim to provide opportunity to the rural producers to sell their products in urban markets, to interact amongst themselves so as to learn from each other and also to sensitise urban buyers about rural products. It has played a significant role in the marketing and promotion of rural products in Odisha as well as products of other states. It has been organizing exhibitions in most of the cities of Odisha under the banner of “Pallishree” and “Sisira Saras’’. These Melas are quite helpful in upgrading & developing their products, customer handling skills and meeting the needs and expectations of urban consumers leading to enlarging their customer base. It also provides marketing channels for the micro enterprises, rural producers to develop sustainable livelihood through adopting appropriate rural technology, product development & diversification with accepted designs, packaging, certification, branding activities etc. This paper is purely based on secondary data and MS-Excel is used for data analysis. The aim of the paper is to examine the role of ORMAS in the promotion of rural products through exhibitions like Pallishree Mela, Sisira Saras etc. The data from 2003-04 to 2018-19 shows that the concept of Pallishree Mela has not only increased the revenue but also has reached to every corner of the Odisha State and outside the state as well.