SHILLONG:
Minister-in-charge of Agriculture, Banteidor Lyngdoh, distributed sanction orders for the distribution of agricultural transport vehicles to the beneficiaries of East Khasi Hills District under the Meghalaya Agriculture Response Vehicle scheme at the Directorate of Agriculture on January 16.
The scheme is meant to facilitate and augment transportation of agricultural produce with an aim to enhance the economic benefits of the farmers.
Under the scheme, two hundred agricultural transport vehicles will be distributed to farmers of which 50 per cent will be from the government and 50 percent will be borne by the cooperative societies or the individuals.
The vehicles are equipped with a GPS system.
Speaking to reporters, Lyngdoh said that the scheme is given to the farmers, especially the farmers’ cooperative society and individuals all over the state as the farmers faced difficulty in transporting agricultural produce from the farm land to the market post- COVID.
He said that the 1917iTeams vehicles are not enough to transport farmers’ produce as there are only 20 of them and other vehicles are hired from private parties.
Notably, the department had written a letter to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma suggesting him to come up with a new scheme to provide sustainable benefits to the farmers.
Lyngdoh informed that many farmers and cooperative societies had applied for the scheme but the department selected only few active cooperative societies and individuals as well.
“There is a GPS in every vehicle and how they transport the vegetables, at the end of the day, we want to see that something should come up with a success story,” Lyngdoh said.
He further said that 200 vehicles are not enough as there are numerous applications from farmers, and the government will decide to enhance the fleet after the election.