The Maris Stella Indoor Stadium in Vijayawada bustled with people as the ten-day Grameen Bharat Mahotsav-Andhra Pradesh, 2025, an exhibition that showcases rural products, came to a close on Sunday.
The exhibition, organised by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), had 71 stalls from eight States, apart from the ones from different districts of A.P., to provide a platform to the products handcrafted by artisans and women of Self Help Groups (SHG). The other States included Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Odisha and West Bengal. More than 120 artisans were benefitted from the exhibition, an annual event, according to a release.
Some of the products that attracted many eyeballs were leather puppetry products, handwoven cotton sarees from Narayanpet in Telangana, banana fibre products, Kondapalli toys, Kalamkari textiles, Venkatagiri sarees, Etikoppaka toys, among others.
This year, the exhibition saw sales of products worth more than ₹54 lakh, with around 1,000 footfalls per day, according to the press release.
Officials from the NABARD-A.P.’s regional office in Vijayawada educated the artisans about online marketing platforms. The release said that such exhibitions are organised every year to gauge the market demand and customer preferences, alleviate challenges faced by artisans and improve their market outreach.
