Interest in Buckwheat cultivation was ignited during the North East Food Show 2019 when local farmers were exposed to the potential of the crop through interaction with international buyers. This led the MFEC to pioneer the buckwheat initiative together with Smti L. Kharkrang, former Director of Agriculture through a tie up with VKPS, Almora, which provided the initial seed material. A small trial was taken up in the village of Umtong, East Khasi Hills and the KVK, Upper Shillong in 2020 which failed due to the devastating impact of cyclone Amphan. Subsequent trails in BRDC, Upper Shillong and KVK in 2021 were successful and provided the required seed for a pilot plantation of 4 acres involving 25 farmers. With the successful implementation of the pilot project, MFEC expanded the cultivation to 100 acres in 2022 and is aiming at achieving 1000 plus acres of Buckwheat cultivation across the state over the next few years.
To achieve this vision, a ‘Farmers Orientation Workshop on Buckwheat in Meghalaya’ was organized on 17th February 2022 by the Meghalaya Farmers’(Empowerment) Commission (MFEC) in collaboration with the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), East Khasi Hills and the Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare. The objective of the worship was to create awareness among extension personnel and progressive farmers about buckwheat as a superfood, its nutritive status, its suitability as a supplementary income generating crop and its potential as a hardy, low cost, nutritious food security crop with very high demand both within the country and outside.
The workshop was a first step towards generating sufficient awareness and momentum to scale up the cultivation of buckwheat from 4 acres to 1000 acres over the next 3 to 4 years with 100 acres having been achieved in March 2022.
