Shillong, Mar 6: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said targeted interventions over the past seven years have led to a substantial increase in earnings for farmers engaged in high-value horticulture and allied activities. Beneficiary farmers participating in government programs focused on mushroom cultivation, floriculture, and cash crops like strawberry, passion fruit, ginger, and turmeric have reported an income rise of 30% to 80%.
Speaking on the development in the agriculture sector in the 2025-26 budget, the cultivation of high-value crops has witnessed a significant increase over the past five years. Notably, the area under black pepper has expanded from 2,083 hectares in 2020 to 3,254 hectares, while coffee plantations have grown from 337 to 785 hectares. Mushroom production has seen a remarkable jump, rising from 27 metric tons in 2018 to 171 metric tons at present.
“Overall, the state has successfully expanded cultivation across 10,718 hectares, positively impacting over 50,000 farmers”, he said.
Under the CM FARM+ initiative, farmers are provided with high-quality planting materials and trained in advanced agricultural techniques. For the fiscal year 2025-26, an allocation of ₹40 crore has been made to support this initiative, with a target of expanding cultivation by 10,000 hectares over the next three years.
He said the government’s Floriculture Mission has been instrumental in supporting farmers to cultivate high-value flowers like orchids, enabling them to generate supplementary incomes of up to ₹1 lakh per annum. So far, 469 farmers have benefited from this initiative, and the target for the upcoming year is to support 1,000 farmers. “To this end, ₹86 crore has been allocated for the mission in the coming fiscal year”, he said.
Sangma said the state has made significant strides in enhancing value addition through the establishment of 164 small processing units and 13 large processing hubs, known as PRIME HUBS, over the past two years. These facilities collectively process over 8,000 metric tons of agricultural produce annually, benefiting more than 10,000 farmers. The government aims to have at least one PRIME HUB in every block by 2028.
The state has constructed 44 cold storage units and 202 pack houses over the last five years to prevent post-harvest losses and enhance storage capacity.
The government has launched the CM ASSURE program to allow over 22,000 small and marginal farmers to sell their produce at a notified price to the Meghalaya State Agriculture Marketing Board. A budget of ₹50 crore has been allocated for the scheme for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
For the upcoming financial year, the state government has allocated ₹618 crore to the Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Department, with ₹450 crore coming from state resources. “This marks an increase of nearly 43% over the current year’s budget, underscoring the government’s commitment to transforming the agricultural landscape and improving farmers’ livelihoods”, he said.
WATCH:
Find latest news from every corner of Northeast India at hubnetwork.in, your online source for breaking news, video coverage.
Also, Follow us on-
Twitter-twitter.com/nemediahub
Youtube channel- www.youtube.com/@NortheastMediaHub2020
Instagram- www.instagram.com/ne_media_hub
Download our app from playstore – Northeast Media Hub
