Shillong, Oct 16: On the occasion of World Food Day, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) highlighted Meghalaya’s agricultural success story, showcasing how strategic targeted investments in first-mile infrastructure can transform local farming economies and elevate smallholder farmers out of poverty.
The organisation stated that Meghalaya’s pineapple farmers are earning up to four times more by shifting from selling raw fruit to processing higher-value products, with improved storage facilities, cooperative-led initiatives and targeted investments helping strengthen the state’s agricultural value chain.
For years, pineapple growers in Meghalaya faced low farm-gate prices, limited storage facilities and rapid spoilage during peak harvest seasons. With raw pineapples fetching around ₹2–₹3 per fruit, farmers often had little choice but to sell quickly, sometimes at reduced prices.
The shift towards post-harvest processing and value addition has helped local cooperatives move beyond selling fresh fruit to producing higher-value processed goods. This has enabled growers to secure better returns while reducing dependence on raw produce markets.
A key contribution to this transition was a $200,000 investment by IFAD, worth approximately ₹1.67 crore, in cold storage infrastructure and processing machinery. The support helped equip a local agricultural cooperative to store, preserve and process pineapples, complementing broader efforts to strengthen rural enterprises and agricultural market access.
The gains have been significant. According to IFAD, participating farmers’ earnings have increased from ₹2–₹3 to as much as ₹12 per pineapple, representing a fourfold to sixfold rise in returns.
Improved storage and processing have also helped reduce post-harvest losses and distress selling during peak production periods. Cooperatives have gained greater opportunities to reach regional and national markets with value-added products.
Highlighting the Meghalaya experience, IFAD stated that “food is never just food: in rural areas, it can become an engine for economic growth”, emphasising the importance of infrastructure that allows smallholder farmers to capture a larger share of the value generated from their produce.
The initiative is part of a broader effort to strengthen rural livelihoods in the state. The Meghalaya Livelihoods and Access to Markets Project (Megha-LAMP), along with state agencies and local producer groups, has focused on enterprise development, rural finance and agricultural value addition.
