Enhancing farmers’ income and marketing efficiency in vegetable cultivation through participatory approach ?A case study of Ri-Bhoi district of Meghalaya

Agricultural production and marketing system of the State of Meghalaya is very complex and becoming more complex due to economic liberalization and globalization. The participatory approach has been adopted to address the problem of production marketing in vegetable cultivation, paid dividend and enhanced the output of various program. Data collected from 60 farmers where the program is being implemented, revealed that due to the combined effort of stakeholders and collective decision taken by the farmers, the programme helped in enhancing the farmers’ income, yield, marketing efficiency and producers shares in consumers’ rupees. The lesson learnt from the above approach indicate that a single agency cannot succeed to meet the growing challenges, due to the complex problems prevailing in the NE. Empowerment of the farmers and convergence of the programme with strengths of the institutions is the key for the successful outcome of the programme. Accordingly the govt. agencies need to redefine its role in agriculture development as general and marketing as a particular.