Northeast To Become Food Sufficient Soon: ICAR Chief

AGARTALA: The northeastern region, which comprises eight hilly states, occupies eight percent of India's land area and is home to four percent of the country's population, is predicted to achieve food sufficiency in five to six years, a top agricultural scientist has said.

"Powered by good climate, sufficient water and devoted manpower, the northeast region is expected to be a food sufficient area in five-six years," Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) director general and renowned agricultural scientist S. Ayyappan told IANS in an interview here.

"With the collective efforts of the ICAR and states' agricultural experts, we could improve food production and productivity in all the northeastern states. The deficiency of foodgrains has reduced from 8.33 percent per triennium (three years) in 2012 to 2.51 percent per triennium in 2014."

"In the last 10 years, rice production has increased by 26.11 percent from 5.4 million tonnes to 6.8 million tonnes, but the wide demand-production gap that still exists in the dairy, fisheries and poultry sectors is a mattern of concern," said Ayyappan, who is also the secretary of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education.

Ayyappan, along with a host of top agricultural and allied sectors' scientists from across the country, was here for ICAR's 22nd regional council meeting.

Experts, research scholars, vice-chancellors of many agricultural universities, specialists in farming, horticulture, fisheries, animal resources, and educational institutions from across the country took part in the two-day session.

Ministers and top officials of the eight northeastern states also attended the event.

The ICAR chief said : "The northeast region can be a food surplus region by 2020-21 as the bad effect of climate change had not much impact here. Good rainfall, favourable soil conditions, a tropical situation and huge scope of organic farming could advance the food sufficiency effort."

"As the region is a bio-diversity hot spot, rising food production and productivity made the effort much easier. However, the crisis of animal fodder is a very big concern in the region despite it being rich in animal resources."

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