Shillong, July 30: The Meghalaya Government is focusing on expanding agricultural infrastructure, including cold storage facilities and agro-processing units, instead of introducing blanket support prices for farm produce, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Timothy D. Shira said on Thursday.
Speaking on the challenges faced by farmers, Shira said frequent fluctuations in the prices of agricultural commodities have become a recurring problem, leaving cultivators vulnerable to unstable market conditions.
“Temporarily, the price of agricultural products may come down and then all of a sudden it goes up again. So an up-and-down situation is very common. However, in order to address this, we have to think of other policies so that in the future farmers will not face this kind of situation,” he said.
The minister ruled out the possibility of providing a minimum support price for all agricultural produce, stating that such a measure would place a significant financial burden on the state government.
“It may not be possible for the government, because if the government gives support price for everything, it will be a huge expense on the part of the government. But in order to get rid of such a situation in the future, the government will think about other policies,” Shira said.
Instead, he said the government plans to strengthen post-harvest infrastructure by establishing more cold storage facilities, enabling farmers to store produce when market prices are low and sell it when prices improve.
“The construction of cold storage for farmers will be one of the alternatives. When the price of vegetables is very low, they can keep them in cold storage, and when the prices go up, they can take them out and sell them,” he added.
Shira also emphasised the government’s efforts to reduce the role of middlemen by promoting farmer-owned processing units. Citing turmeric as an example, he said the establishment of spice processing units in Bhoirymbong and Jaintia Hills has helped improve price realisation for growers.
“To eliminate these middlemen, we need cold storages and some other processing units. For example, take the price of turmeric. Now we have established spice processing units in Bhoirymbong and Jaintia Hills as well, and therefore the price of turmeric has also gone up,” he said.
According to the minister, cooperative societies managing these processing units are purchasing produce directly from farmers at better prices, reducing dependence on intermediaries.
“With the establishment of processing units, there is no need for middlemen to come and dictate the price. The cooperative societies that are running these processing units fix the price, which is a better price for the farmers. Farmers are directly coming and disposing of their raw material at the processing units,” Shira stated.
He further said the Agriculture Department will assess the demand for such infrastructure across different districts and establish additional cold storage facilities and processing units to minimise post-harvest losses, strengthen value addition, and improve the incomes of farmers across Meghalaya.
