Agriculture Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh today told the Assembly that her department has created a portal where the prices of agricultural and horticultural commodities from all districts can be tracked daily.
In response to a query from Mowkaiaw MLA Nujorki Sungoh, Lyngdoh said that the market intervention scheme is an ad hoc scheme implemented by the Department of Agriculture and Union Ministry of Agriculture for the procurement of agricultural and horticultural commodities from all states.
In Meghalaya, the Agricultural Produce Market Act was enacted in the 1980 and, in 1983, the State Agricultural Marketing Board was set up.
“We have so many facilities that are made available to farmers across the board,” Lyngdoh said, adding that there are various categories of farmers that are registered on the portal even though she could not answer the exact number of farmers on the ground that there are many categories.
Sungoh stressed that the ginger farmers in his constituency and in other parts of the state have to sell their crop at just Rs 2-3 per kilogramme, which is enough to cover the costs of cultivation.
He urged the minister and the department to take the matter seriously and make the portal known throughout the state so that farmers can benefit from government schemes.
