Economic Affairs: Vol. 59 Special Issue: 783-795: 2014

10

Growth Performance of Agriculture and

Allied Sectors in the North East India

A. Roy, D.S. Dkhar, A.K. Tripathi, N. Uttam Singh, D. Kumar,

S.K. Das 1 and Amit Debnath

ICAR Regional Centre for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya-793103, India.

1 ICAR Regional Centre for NEH Region, Sikkim Centre, Gangtok-737102, India.

Corresponding author: A. Roy; aniruddhaubkv@gmail.com

Paper No. 192

Received: 13 May, 2014

Accepted: 8 July, 2014

Abstract missing

The North East India comprising of eight states namelyAssam,Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur,

Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura has a total geographical area of 262180 km 2 which is about

8% of the country’s total area with a population of about 45 million (2011 census). Agriculture and

allied sector is the major source of livelihood for the majority of the workforce (around 50-70% across

the states). By and large, the region is characterized by frazility, marginality, inaccessibility, cultural

heterogeneity, ethnicity and rich in biodiversity. Rural population (82%) is agrarian and depends on

agriculture and allied sector for livelihood in the absence of industries, except in the state of Assam.

Around 56% of the area is under low altitude, 33% mid altitude and 11% under high altitude. 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 very important role towards sustainable rural livelihoods in all farming system

in general and in rainfed and hilly farming system in particular like the north east region. Increase

in production can be induced by research, development/extension and infrastructural facilities to take

prudent public investment decision through understanding the relative importance of productivity

enhancing factors (Thorat et al., 2006). Viewing the importance and growth potential of the horticulture

sector, planning commission has given special focus to this sector for its holistic development and

considerable investment has been made during twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17). Primary

objective of this plan investment is to increase area, production and productivity of various agricultural