Shillong: Farmers in Meghalaya are dumping cabbages for a measly Rs 2 per kilogram. The Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee says the state government caused this mess. Lack of a long-term plan kills profits. MPCC general secretary Manuel Badwar ripped into the Agriculture department on Wednesday. He claims the department ignores its own data on crop production and acreage.
Badwar argues that the state fails to forecast harvests or manage distribution. Farmers play a dangerous guessing game. They swap crops based on last year’s prices, leading to massive oversupply. Badwar said: “The low prices are only a symptom. The real problem lies elsewhere.”
Government marketing stunts fall flat. The Pineapple Festival does little to help when produce rots during transit. Badwar points to poor logistics as the primary failure. He demands better storage, faster transportation, and wider distribution networks. “There is no point in telling people that Meghalaya has the best pineapples if consumers across the country cannot easily buy them,” he added.
The Congress leader wants the state to push food processing like canning. Reviving dormant processing units with private help could save crops from waste. He maintains that better infrastructure is the only way to get local goods to national and international buyers. Farmers need steady returns, not empty branding.
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