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CM interact with farmers at Byrwa Village

Shillong, 07 July 2023: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma visited Byrwa village in Ri-Bhoi to interact with farmers engaged in aromatic plant cultivation under the flagship Aroma Mission initiative.

During his visit, the Chief Minister commended the farmers for their remarkable achievements in transforming aromatic plants into valuable products, including essential oils and natural repellents.

Expressing his support, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma assured the farmers that the government would extend all possible assistance to upscale their enterprise. He applauded the efforts of the group at Byrwa, who shared their plans to create perfumes using the extracted oils.

At Byrwa village, Bestarly Marwein runs the startup Fountain Green JLG, which is actively promoting medicinal and aromatic essential oils in the state. The enterprise, in collaboration with women entrepreneurs, operates three essential oil distillation units to propagate various plants such as Citronella, Lemon Grass, Turmeric, Vetiver, Winter Green, Geranium, and more. Notably, all these plants are grown naturally in healthy soil without the usage of chemicals.

In addition to selling oils in bulk, Fountain Green JLG crafts fully natural essential oil soaps, mosquito repellents, mosquito repellent creams, mosquito repellent floor mops, and agarbatti. The startup has received support from PRIME, which provided mentoring, capacity building, funding, and product development assistance.

Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma announced that the government would grant additional financial aid to purchase machinery, further enhancing the unit’s capabilities at Byrwa. This investment signifies the government’s commitment to ensuring value addition and tapping into the immense potential of aromatic plants.

The Meghalaya Aroma Mission, launched in 2019 as a flagship initiative by Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, aims to harness the economic and environmental benefits of aromatic plant cultivation. Through this mission, the government is dedicated to supporting local farmers and entrepreneurs in the cultivation, processing, and value addition of aromatic plants.

Initiatives : Agriculture

Launch of “Restart Meghalaya Mission’ on 15th August 2020

The Mission comprise of a series of interventions to support farmers and entrepreneurs by enabling them to build growth-promoting basic infrastructure and services. Under this Mission, 1917iTEAMS – the IT Platform aimed at enabling farmers access to agricultural information, crop advisories and markets will be expanded logistically through induction of another 100 vehicles.

Creation of the Directorate of Food Processing on May 2018

With the objective of seizing opportunities in the sector and the untapped food processing potential of the state for uplifting the livelihoods of farmers and value chain actors, the Government of Meghalaya created the Directorate of Food Processing (DFP) as a one-stop agency to handle all matters relating to food processing in the state and to deal with all central government Ministries and Agencies (viz. Ministries of Agriculture, and Food Processing, SFAC, NCDC, NABARD, etc.) in all matters pertaining to the development of agricultural food processing sector.

First Ever Farmer’s Parliament held on 4th - 5th December 2018

The parliament was organised by the state department of agriculture in collaboration with Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA) and the Hill Farmers' Union (HFU). As a step toward the promotion of new technologies, HFU with the support of Meghalaya government, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence App for farmers — called Nongrep (nongrep in Khasi language means farmer) with its software partner Impetus Solutions from Hyderabad — as a social innovation project. This app will address matters of farm aggregations, soil health and disease identification, crop yield, farm produce pickups, market linkage and retail sellers app.

Launch of the Farmer’s Portal on 7th May 2018

The Meghalaya Famers’ Portal (www.megfarmers.gov.in) of the Department of Agriculture is a platform for farmers to seek any information related to agriculture. Detailed information on farmers’ insurance, agricultural storage, crops, extension activities, seeds, pesticides, farm machineries, etc. is provided. Details of fertilizers, market prices, package and practices, programmes, welfare schemes are also given.

Awards & Recognitions
  • Meghalaya has been selected for the Commendation award in 'Total foodgrains Category-III' for 2017-18. The award consists of a citation and an amount of Rs. 1 crore.
  • Meghalaya Agriculture Department and the MIE Meghalaya Team won the '7th eNabling North East (eNorth East) Award 2019-20' in the 'Agriculture & Rural Development' category for 1917 iTEAMS project which is a project in collaboration with Digital India.
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi awarded Meghalaya on May 2018 the Krishi Commendation Award for the year 2015-16, in recognition of the commendable foodgrains production achieved by the State.
  • Meghalaya has been adjudged the Most Improved Small State in the category of Agriculture and received the India Today – "The State of the States” Award on 23rd November 2018.