Agriculture in North East India

Introduction:

The agriculture and allied sector is the major source of livelihood for most of the workforce (around 50-70% across the states). The region is characterized by fragility, marginality, inaccessibility, cultural heterogeneity, ethnicity and is rich in biodiversity. The rural population (82%) is agrarian and depends on agriculture and allied sector for livelihood in the absence of industries, except in Assam.
The agricultural production system is characterized by and large CDR (Complex diverse risk-prone) type, low cropping intensity, subsistence farming, undulating topography and faulty land use pattern. Under this low investment-low-income farming situation, probably horticulture sector has desirable attributes to accelerate the agricultural growth process in the region. Agriculture and allied sector, particularly horticulture sector, plays a vital role towards sustainable rural livelihoods in all farming system in general and in the rain-fed and hilly farming system in particular like the northeast region. An increase in production can be induced by research, development/extension and infrastructural facilities to take prudent public investment decisions through understanding the relative importance of productivity-enhancing factors.

Features of Agriculture in North East India:

1. Shifting cultivation: Shifting cultivation (popularly known as jhum practice; a form of slash and burn system of cultivation) is yet a unique feature of agriculture in the hills covering nearly 2 million hectares, which accounts for about one-fourth of the total cropped area. Although the jhum practice is criticised due to low productivity and environmental diseconomies, it supports a huge population of 4.43 lakh jhum cultivation families. Being a socially preferred practice, instead of banning it, more research on improving the overall productivity of the jhum land will be a desirable policy option.
2. Multiple Cropping: More than 67 per cent of the farmers in NER regularly practice multiple cropping in combination with dairy, fishery and poultry in their farms. The high-value crops such as fruits and vegetables, oilseeds, pulses and spices are prominent. The area under fruits and vegetables accounts for 10 per cent of the total cropped area, the highest proportion in the country (Assam alone has 2.89 lakh hectares, 2001-02). Yet, a huge potential remained untapped due to several constraints and institutional rigidity.
3. Crop Productivity: It is intriguing that despite the importance of agriculture, the productivity of various crops has been substantially low, production is highly fluctuating, and the post-harvest loss is high. In comparison to all India levels, the difference in yield is also very high in the NER.
4. Crop Diversification: As compared to the rest of the country, the record of crop diversification is favourable in the NER. The fruits and vegetables occupy the second place with 10 per cent area share next to rice followed by oilseeds (6 per cent), while the share of pulses and spices is 2 per cent each. Interestingly, the area allocation is higher, the proportion of the households growing fruit and vegetables is also substantial (as much as 67 per cent of the households grow vegetables). It proves that given the appropriate strategy, the overall improvement of crop diversification could be easily achieved in the NER. The area under oilseeds, spices and nuts is also growing fast. The important cash crops include coconut, areca nut, sugarcane, tea and coffee, rubber and sericulture, silk cocoon etc.
5. Tea: Tea is another important crop grown on nearly half a million hectares. Tea has been a corporate crop until recently when the government implemented the schemes to promote small growers tea cultivation and granted its access to farmers.

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