Shillong, Nov 2: A 21-member delegation of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Executive Board began its Meghalaya visit on Monday with field inspections of the Meghalaya Livelihoods and Access to Markets Project (M-LAMP) sites in Jirang, Ri Bhoi.
The delegation comprising representatives from Brazil, China, Eritrea, Finland, Indonesia, Nigeria, Norway and the United Kingdom, along with IFAD top officials, visited cooperative farming and processing units that have become a model for rural livelihoods in the state.
The team includes IFAD Secretary Claudia Ten Have, Associate Vice-President Donal Brown, Evaluation Director Indran Naidoo, Asia Pacific Director Reehana Raza and IFAD India Country Director James Marc de Sousa-Shields, besides officials from the Department of Economic Affairs.
The delegation visited the 100-acre Jirang Experiential Farm owned by Eastern Region Marketing Cooperative Society (EARMACS), where high-value spices and fruits are grown, and the Prime Hub at Jirang where they inspected the pineapple pulping unit of Jirang Agro Farmer Producer Company Ltd.
Briefing the team, MBMA Deputy Project Director Augustus S. Suting said M-LAMP, implemented by MBMA with IFAD support since 2014, has reached over 9.1 lakh people across 1.99 lakh households. The project, with a total cost of $205.75 million including $70.64 million IFAD financing, works through Integrated Village Cooperative Societies (IVCS) which now have 1.13 lakh shareholders.
At the PRIME Hub, Jirang Agro FPC CEO Ibalahun Thangkhiew said collective farming has improved the bargaining power of farmers. The company now supplies to Reliance Retail, Mother Dairy, Flipkart, BigBasket and Swiggy and exports Khasi mandarin and pineapple to Singapore and Dubai.
She said the pineapple pulping unit, completed in 2025, was set up to reduce post-harvest losses as only Grade A fruits could be sold fresh earlier. The unit, largely run by women, now adds value to farm produce procured directly from farmers.
With government support and organic certification, the company’s revenue has grown from Rs 1.5 lakh in 2020 to Rs 1.2 crore in 2025-26, she said.
