In Meghalaya farmers operate independently because the practice of Farmers’ Producers Organisations (FPO) -where prices are decided by farmers as a collective without a middleman acting as an agent – is absent. Middlemen exploit vulnerable farmers by leveraging unequal power dynamics. They conceal real market rates, manipulate weighing scales, and dictate prices. Because many farmers lack direct market access and reliable storage, they are forced to accept low prices to prevent their highly perishable crops from spoiling. Hence the sharp fall in cabbage prices to Rs 2 per kg ultimately resulted in frustrated farmers giving their cabbages away free to passers-by. The sharp fall in cabbage prices is due to a glut of cabbages in an unorganised and weak market—meaning production far outweighs local consumption while the export market remains sporadic.
A visit to the rural outback of Meghalaya during this season reveals hectares of cabbage grown without adequate market surveys regarding potential demand. When too much cabbage reaches the market simultaneously, vendors exploit farmers by drastically lowering prices. Farmers have no option but to sell at the buyer’s price rather than let their cabbages rot on the farms, since cabbage is highly perishable. When supply suddenly exceeds what traders and consumers can absorb, prices collapse. The export market to Assam and other neighbouring states fluctuates constantly, leaving producers high and dry. Whereas in the Garo Hills trains have made exporting vegetables and other produce easier, more regular and efficient, farmers in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills depend on roads and any disruption due to floods etc., directly impacts exports and in turn, the farmers. It is to overcome all these hiccups that the Meghalaya Farmers’ Commisison was constituted. At one time it worked well because the person at the top was actively engaged and interested in empowering farmers. Now that Commission appears to have lost its way. This is always the problem with personality-driven institutions.
Farmers are supposed to grow crops and other institutions are supposed to handle marketing, etc. Farmers have little bargaining power. They generally sell their products at the farm gate, while the produce passes through traders, transporters and wholesalers before reaching consumers. This gap is huge: while farmers sell their cabbages at Rs 2 a kg, consumers pay upwards of Rs 20 per kg. The crisis, therefore, is not one of over-production but a lack of market organisation and distribution chain. In Meghalaya there is no effective price-support or market intervention mechanism. If the production cost per kilogram of cabbage is Rs 10 while the sale price is Rs 2, the farmer bears the brunt of this price differential. Meanwhile the Hill Farmers Union has demanded a minimum price and a Market Intervention Scheme under which the government would compensate farmers when market prices fall below the cost of production. For a long time Meghalaya has spoken of cold storages etc but these remain only discussion points. Nothing has materialised thereby leaving the farming community high and dry and at the breaking point. A more robust Agricultural Policy is called for at this critical juncture.
