Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ABSTRACT
North-Eastern states have 773.5 thousand hectare area under horticultural
crops (fruits and vegetables), which is around 5.4% of the total area under
fruits and vegetables in the country. From this area the region produces
about 9908.2 thousand tones of fruits and vegetables with a productivity
of 12.81 t/ha against the national productivity of 14.34 t/ha (Anon, 2011).
The Region is known as the center of diversity for many horticultural crops
like citrus, banana, minor fruits (
sohiong, sophie
, etc.), vegetables (Brinjal,
king chili, Indian bean, kakrol and kartoli, chow-chow and dioscoria, etc.),
spices (ginger and turmeric) and ornamentals (orchid anthurium and lily,
etc.). North eastern region of India is facing the problem of heavy rains
during the rainy season, which results into loss of fertile soil and flood in
the valleys. Due to steep slope the drought during winter season becomes
a major problem during November-March in last few years, the young
orchard of
Khasi
mandarin has started declining in entire NEH Region.
Erratic rainfall pattern, rise in temperature and change in relative humidity
over last 15-20 years have led to emergence of new biotypes in different
insect and pest species in most of the fruits and vegetables, besides affect-
ing flowering, fruiting, production and productivity of these crops. Late
blight of tomato and potato have become a serious problem due to early
heavy rains and low temperature during April-May. Likewise, infestation
of cabbage butterfly during March-April is becoming a serious problem
in last few years in the region. Infestation of fruit fly in peach, guava, etc.
is rising in last couple of years in Barapani conditions and because of this,
there has been reduction in marketable yield of peach and guava up to
25-30%. These facts clearly indicate the change of the environment in the
region. To mitigate the impact of climate change there is a need to focus
on the conservation of genetic resources, development and production of
climate resilient cultivars in different horticultural crops, demonstration
and adaptation of technologies like, water harvesting, micro irrigation,
protected cultivation, etc.
5.1 INTRODUCTION
The North-eastern region of India is one of the global biodiversity hotspots
comprising of eight states, viz., Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya,
