Shangpung: The zigzag roads in the West Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya are a gateway to villages that now draw traders from across India and abroad to the golden spice, turmeric. Beyond the mist and clouds that often wrap these remote villages, people have been growing Lakadong—considered to be the finest variety of turmeric in the world—for generations. Now, Meghalaya’s Lakadong Turmeric has got fresh legs. And one magic word is on every grower’s mind—curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric that’s used for pharmaceutical purposes, lending it its premium value.
Five years after Meghalaya set up Mission Lakadong, the local turmeric has set the district abuzz with economic activity, trade, and transforming farming and making it export-ready. Now Meghalaya’s turmeric is landing in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The state’s biggest competitors are Telangana and Maharashtra.
Several other states eclipse Meghalaya when it comes to the quantity of turmeric produced, but when the scales of quality are put out, the numbers flip. Three varieties of turmeric are grown in the West Jaintia Hill district – Lachein, Lasyein and Lakadong. While the first two varieties yield only four to five per cent curcumin, Lakadong boasts an average of seven per cent curcumin content. And the number is only native to this tiny district, which is bordered by Bangladesh in the south and Assam in the north. All attempts at growing the same turmeric elsewhere resulted in a sharp fall in curcumin level.
It can help farmers triple their income compared to other varieties – Saioo, part of Mission Lakadong
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Masters on a mission
Two turmeric evangelists have turned it around for the state, from ideation to sales. They also showed the farmers a new way of branding and finding an export market. The Meghalaya government capitalised on the bounty from nature and started Mission Lakadong in 2018. It appointed Demanson Lyngdoh, who belongs to the West Jaintia Hils district, as the nodal officer for the mission. Individuals such as Padma Shri awardee Trinity Saioo and groups like Life Spice Processing Cooperative Society were also roped in to advance Meghalaya’s turmeric dream.
Today, Lyngdoh is the go-to man in the horticulture department of Meghalaya for all things turmeric, especially Lakadong. Often shuttling between Shillong and his office in Jowai, Lyngdoh carries with him the legends associated with Lakadong and is acquainted with every turmeric grower in the district.
He speaks with them in their language, Pnar, and tells them about improving quality planting, upscaling post-harvest and processing. The project officer for the mission has seen the spice become a catalyst for rural development and usher economic prosperity for the villagers, especially women.
Just a month before the new academic year started in April, women in the district were able to pay for their children’s education and buy their school books by selling sliced and dried turmeric, according to Lyngdoh. It’s these grass root-level changes that fuel him to do more for the community.
“I want villagers to learn and improve as much as possible,” he said. His urgency is rooted in the knowledge that governments come and go and their priorities can shift anytime.
While the state government is focused on expanding the area of turmeric cultivation and productivity, those who have been engaged in the commercial cultivation of Lakadong for a long time are moving to the next stage—online marketing.
Saioo, a school teacher and mother of six children in Mulieh village of the district, was awarded Padma Shri in 2020 for mobilising farmers to grow the Lakadong variant.
She started growing the Lakadong turmeric in 2003. And with Spices Board, an agency under the Union Ministry of Commerce, she helped popularise organic cultivation of the spice. “It can help farmers triple their income compared to other varieties,” she said.
She is working on the Mission Lakadong, by sharing her expertise. Since 2018, she has been involved in marketing the product as well. Saioo speaks with pride when sharing about how Meghalaya exported Lakadong to 10 states in the country and even to the US.
“We are doing business online. My aim is to still maintain the quality as we try to advertise through the website and on social media,” she said.
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Creating progressive farmers
On the ground, almost every household in the district had been growing turmeric in varying quantities. This is why, nodal officer Lyngdoh said, the government thought to upscale the practice to enhance the livelihood of the farmers. Now, the mission mode includes upgrading the small and marginal farmers to progressive farmers.
This requires going back to the basics.
“We have learnt that when rates are too high, it’s difficult to sell in the market. When farmers get very less yield, they have to sell at a higher rate. So, now, we have to work to raise their productivity, so that the input price can come down a little bit,” Lyngdoh said.
The next stage is to ensure ways to maximise profit, which in the case of Lakadong turmeric can be achieved through the processing of the spice. The raw version sells at a meager Rs 30-35 per kg while dried pieces sell up to Rs 160-180. But there is a catch—it requires 5-6 kgs of fresh turmeric to make a kilogram of the dry product. “Dry slice is the stage where people don’t get much profit,” Lyngdoh said.
But if the growers are able to sell the Lakadong turmeric as powder, their profit level skyrockets. They can sell it for Rs 300 per kg.
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Force of collective marketing centres
To ensure that turmeric growers have a robust channel to sell their produce, the government created 17 collective marketing centres (CMCs) in the district. Villagers can wash, dry and slice the harvested crop using basic machinery at the CMCs.
Operated by elected members of the villages, the unit also stores dried as well as powdered turmeric. Buyers and traders can immediately check the product at these units and purchase it in bulk.
Lyngdoh proudly said that one of the CMCs is expecting a buyer from Europe in August.
“Previously we had trouble aggregating the produce for buyers, if they wanted 10,000 or 20,000 tonnes, but not anymore,” he said.
The Meghalaya government is also working with cooperatives to strengthen the value chain of turmeric, a spice belonging to the ginger family.
Life Spice Processing Cooperative Society, which started in 2010, is actively participating in Mission Lakadong projects to expand the plantation area of turmeric.
There are 15 CMCs working with the cooperative, procuring raw turmeric from them. It also operates a research centre where it experiments with different machines to process the raw material as well as extract different components from the turmeric, including curcumin.
In a decade’s time, the economic exploits of turmeric allowed the cooperative to buy their own land. From 100 families who were involved at the start, it has expanded to 1,000 families.
Teimonglang Shylla, 38, the secretary of the cooperative, has seen Lakadong drive social change.
“Previously, their [turmeric growers] children didn’t go to school. They usually dropped out after primary school. Now, they are putting their children till high school, some even college,” she said.
The presence of the cooperative and CMCs has helped eliminate middlemen who exploited naïve villagers “who didn’t know about the market”. With Mission Lakadong, the group is helping villagers with seeds to expand their planting.
Shylla remarked how the indigenous resources have empowered women and changed their everyday life.
In Shangpung village, four women gather at a CMC to proudly show over 20 towering packets of dried turmeric stored inside the centre. They then go to a tiny farm of one of the women where turmeric is planted along with maize crops. Soon they will harvest the maize and leave the field all for the golden spice. The women move like clockwork, no longer limited to domestic chores. They have a sense of purpose — to move the turmeric axle of Meghalaya.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)