Shillong: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) president Álvaro Lario on Friday flagged off a consignment of fresh Megha-1 turmeric from Bhoirymbong in Ri-Bhoi district for export to Singapore.Lario is on an official visit to Meghalaya to review the grassroots progress of the Meghalaya Livelihoods and Access to Markets Project (Megha-LAMP).The consignment was flagged off from the Eastern Ri-Bhoi Organic Farmer Producer Company Ltd Prime Hub, a community-led processing and aggregation centre supported by $3.12 million in co-financing. The facility, designed to benefit 5,500 participants, has an annual processing capacity of 10,000 metric tonnes.The hub focuses on value addition, quality processing and market linkages for spices produced in the region. It operates under a hub-and-spoke model, with collective marketing centres, warehouses and farmers’ markets supplying produce to the main facility.An official statement said the model was helping producer collectives shift from selling raw agricultural produce to marketing high-value processed spices.The IFAD delegation also visited Umwang village, where it inspected the Umwang Pyllun Integrated Village Cooperative Society Ltd. The community-owned cooperative provides financial services, collective marketing and affordable farm mechanisation for crops such as pineapple, ginger and bay leaves.Supported by $61,950 in IFAD financing, the cooperative has 167 members from 105 households, with women accounting for 41% of its membership. It handles more than 120 metric tonnes of pineapple, 55 metric tonnes of ginger and 136 metric tonnes of bay leaves.The first day of Lario’s visit focused on community-led agricultural enterprises, integrated village cooperative societies and value-addition infrastructure in Ri-Bhoi.
