Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim which falls under the
high rainfall zone and the climate ranges from subtropical to alpine. The
area is extended from 88-97°E and 22-29, 30
o
N with a geographical total
area of about 255,083 sq. km. It comprises of about 35% area under plain
and the remaining 65% area under hills. The altitude varies from the low-
lying plains of Bramhaputra (20 m) to around 6000 m in parts of Arunachal
Pradesh. The region is characterized by difficult terrain, wide variations in
slopes and altitudes, land tenure systems and indigenous cultivation prac-
tices. North-Eastern India has a total cropped area of 5.3 million hectares
and a population of around 39 million. Out of 4.4 million hectare net sown
area, roughly 1.4 million hectare lies in hilly sub region and around 1.3
million hectare area is affected by soil erosion problem. About 0.5 million-
hectare area is under shifting cultivation in the North East region.
5.2
HORTICULTURAL SCENARIO
Horticulture is the backbone of agriculture sector of North East India and
its potentiality is yet to be harnessed to its full extent. The total area under
horticultural crops (fruits and vegetables) in the region is around 773.5
thousand hectare, 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. The area under various
fruits and vegetable crops in the North Eastern region during 2009-2010
is about 367.7 and 405.8 thousand hectares with an annual production of
3404.4 and 6503.8 thousand tones having the productivity of 9.26 and
16.03 t/ha, respectively (Anon. 2011).
The region is considered to be the richest reservoir of genetic variabil-
ity of large number of horticultural crops. The fruits grown in this region
ranged from tropical and subtropical fruits (citrus, banana, papaya, pine-
apple, guava, and passion fruit) to temperate fruits (apple, pear, peach,
plum, strawberry, kiwifruits, and nuts). Apart from these, there are certain
underutilized fruit crops which are grown at a large scale in some or other
part of the region are
Prunus nepalensis
,
Elaeagnus latifolia, Phyllanthus
acidus, Marica
, etc. The enormous diversity makes the region a gene pool
for the varietal improvement of many vegetable and spices crops. The im-
portant vegetable and spices crops grown in the regions are tomato, chili,
