MECOFED, the Meghalaya State Cooperative Marketing and Consumers’ Federation, will be the sole authority to distribute subsidised fertilisers to farmers in the state.
Earlier this month, the state government decided to recommence subsidies for artificial fertilisers, which had been halted for several years, ever since the state government tried to promote organic agriculture. This was done given the recent drastic rise in the price of fertilisers on the open market and the government’s admission that agricultural output had suffered under the Organic Mission.
The federation falls under the Cooperation Department and, in a notice today, the latter said that MECOFED will be the only formal channel that will obtain the state’s quota of fertiliser from the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) in Guwahati.
Farmers eligible to procure fertilisers from MECOFED will be provided with a 50 per cent subsidy.
