By Nabamita Mitra
The muck-filled lane snaking through Iewduh leads to the vegetable and fruit markets sitting at a corner of the jigsaw puzzle. With fresh seasonal produce in cane baskets haphazardly lying on the market floor, the mandi is a delight for kitchen councillors.
Iewduh is Khasi Hills’ largest wholesale market supplying a variety of fruits and vegetables, most of which are grown in the State, to different satellite markets in the city. It also gives a peek at the State’s agricultural abundance.
Meghalaya produces a large number of vegetables — cabbage, cauliflower, radish, carrot, squash, tomatoes, green peas, potatoes and capsicum, among others — and is one of the largest suppliers to all northeastern states.
In Iewduh alone, more than 1,000 tonnes of vegetables come from East and West Khasi Hills and “the quantity goes up to 2,000 tonnes on Saturdays and Tuesdays”, says B. Dohling, who keeps the book of supplies to the market.
Among the seasonal fruits are pineapples, oranges, plums, pears, bananas and Assam lemon, which are sent not only to the states in the region but also to other parts of the country.
In fact, summer is the time when the State supplies the largest quantity of fruits and vegetables to the northeastern states, including Assam. “Meghalaya bets big on off-season (May to November) vegetables which are supplied to even Siliguri in West Bengal,” says Sampath Kumar, Commissioner and Secretary of Agriculture and Community and Rural Development.
The State also exports tomatoes in large scale to neighbouring Bangladesh and the Government hopes to augment supplies to other countries too.
Most of these fruits and some vegetables sold in local markets are organic. “Though they are priced higher than the ones grown using pesticides, customers prefer organic produce for health reasons,” says Albst Syiemlieh, who sells fruits at Iewduh.
Syiemlieh, who buys his fruits
from middlemen, proudly shows the plums, pears and pineapples on display. The fruits are also sent to the neighbouring states.
Meghalaya is also growing exotic fruits like strawberries and kiwis for the last 4-5 years. Around 15 tonnes of these new varieties are grown in Mawphrang, Mawkriah and Nohrang.
Around 10 tonnes of strawberries and kiwis are also exported to Bengaluru and Delhi every year.
Among winter fruits, says Kharnaoir, sohphlang (which is actually the root) has demand for its medicinal values. “At least 1 tonne of sohphlang was sent out to Pune recently but this is mainly for medicinal research purpose,” he adds.
The Government has three organic gardens — in Shillong (Motinagar), Pynursla and Shella for temperate and tropical fruits. According to East Khasi Hills District Horticulture Officer P.S Kharnaoir, organic farming covers around 40,000 hectares.
However, large-scale production of organic vegetables is yet to start. “Those who grow hybrid vegetables will need fertilisers. Also, these vegetables cost less than the organic ones and are visually appealing to buyers,” says Kharnaoir.
Though it is not impossible to find organic vegetables in Iewduh, the quantity is less. A few like Nina Tynsong come with vegetables grown with natural fertiliser. Tynsong sells broccolis which she gets from Mawmi.
Many residents of the fast-transforming Lawsohtun village still grow organic vegetables though in small quantities. They sell the produce in local markets. Anju Jana, who grows carrots, beetroot and mustard, takes around 60g of the produce to Iewduh every day. But most of the sellers, like Mary Nongrum, who sells capsicum, carrots and cabbages, go for vegetables grown with “medicines”.
“The transition from inorganic to cent per cent organic farming will take time. Farmers should be made aware of the process and its feasibility and the products’ market viability,” says Kharnaoir.
The process is long and the Government has not included any time frame in its plan. But Kumar sounds optimistic and says the target is to supply organic fruits and vegetables to all metro cities.
“Organic vegetables and fruits are the most sought after in big cities. But achieving that will take probably another 10 years,” he adds.
Road blocks
The State Government though nurtures big dreams, seems to be overlooking the need for basic infrastructure, especially post-harvest facilities, which is an impediment to large-scale production.
The State has only two cold storages, one at Mawiong in East Khasi Hills and the other in Garobadha for potato, pineapple, ginger, citrus fruits, flowers and vegetables. Kumar says the 1,000-MT cold storage facility at Mawiong has no takers.
“We need private players to set up and maintain cold storages but so far no entity has approached the
Government for building facilities. One reason could be that it is a difficult task as power supply is erratic in Meghalaya and no one wants to take the risk lest things go wrong and produce are wasted,” says Kharnaior while talking about the lack of post-harvest technology.
However, he adds that not much produce go waste, mainly because of the weather condition.
Seconding Kharnaoir, Kumar says, “We produce off-season vegetables which are lifted immediately by the markets. Cold storage does help but small famers want to dispose their produce quickly.”
The Government also does not have any mechanism to measure how much products are exported or supplied to other states and the district horticulture officer says one can estimate the export quantity from the surplus amount.
In 2016-17, East Khasi Hills
produced a surplus of 6568.8 MT of tomatoes, 11423.2MT of cauliflowers, 2263.2 MT of beetroot, 22770.4
MT of cabbages, 5740 MT of pineapples and 17612 MT of Khasi mandarin.
“Villagers in border areas sell their produce to Assam buyers at farmgates and since no tax is imposed on agricultural produce, it is difficult to assess the amount sold outside the State,” says Kharnaoir.
But Kumar points out that field officers in every block collate market statistics and provide the same on the portal.
Farmer-friendly
Sources in the Agriculture Department say the Government is lining up a series of measures to give a fillip to the primary sector.
There are five Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in the State funded by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research that farmers through demonstrations and lab to land transfer of technology. The three state-run research stations in Jowai, Tura and Shillong work closely with the KVKs.
The Meghalaya State Agricultural Marketing Portal, which provides intensive market statistics, is another crucial tool for the primary sector though the facility is restricted only to those with access to internet. For the rest, mobile phones are great enablers.
The State Agricultural Marketing Board was set up in 1983 to develop marketing infrastructure and provide support to farmers. In 1991, with the help of the Centre for Agricultural Marketing in Jaipur, a survey was conducted and a master plan for developing infrastructure was prepared. The State has over 180 community markets.
Meghalaya also has two regulated wholesale markets at Mawiong and Garobadha. Only potatoes are sold here.
The main source of revenue of the regulated market is from the cess collected from the traders. The average revenue of the market committee is about Rs 25 lakh annually, according to data on the government website.
The yearly average arrival of all commodities to the market is about 40,000 MT with an average estimated value of about Rs 2,500 lakh per year, the website further informs.
For fruits, the Government has set up two processing units, in Shillong and Dainadubi, where the surplus amount is processed into products like ready-to-drink juices, jams and marmalade.
Organic leverage
The Government, which allocated Rs 287.94 crore for Agriculture and Horticulture sector in the 2017-18 budget, is in the process of bringing in more acreage under organic farming, but the “process will take time”. There is no official time frame for the same.
A new method of composting, which will take 18 days instead of three months, has been introduced by the State Rural Employment Society (SRES) under MGNREGS and in collaboration with Billions in Change, a ‘movement that creates and implements solutions to basic problems like water, energy and health’.
The 18-day compost, or Sboh Mariang (nature’s compost), is not only time-saving but cost-effective too.
Small farmers, who are growing or planning to foray into organic farming, are getting little financial help from the Government. Also, lack of prospects in the primary sector is driving many youth from the economically backward to other profession.
The problems will be addressed once Meghalaya embarks on the Agri-Horti Mission, assures Kumar. “The programme will help in accelerated poverty reduction. The mission will also focus on value-chain development by encouraging young entrepreneurs to take up marketing and value addition of agri-produce. There are some ideas to use digital technology to empower farmers for connecting them to markets,” he says allaying fears of Meghalaya losing its crown.
(With inputs from Vijay Thapa & Olivia
Lyngdoh Mawlong)
