Northeast To Become Food Sufficient Soon: ICAR Chief

The agricultural scientist stressed the urgent need to stop 'Jhum' (slash and burn method of farming in the hill tops) cultivation by providing settled and alternative farming methods and increasing the skills of young farmers toward this.

Tribals in the northeastern states practise 'Jhum' cultivation. This shifting form of farming usually involves cutting down of entire forests in the hills and allowing the slashed vegetation to dry on the mountain slopes prior to burning. Rice is grown along with vegetables, maize, cotton and mustard, among others.

Tribals constitute 27 percent of northeast India's 45.58 million people.

The ICAR chief said that the northeastern region, comprising Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura and Sikkim accounts for 7.8 percent of the total area under rice cultivation in India while its share in rice production is only 5.9 percent. The average rice productivity of 1.4 tonne per hectare is below the national average of 1.9 tonnes per hectare.

The northeastern states are largely dependent on Punjab, Haryana and other larger states for foodgrains and essential vegetables.

Accepting the fact that there is a growing trend of people moving away agriculture sector, the scientist said that ICAR has been introducing new methods of agriculture with more profit.

Ayyappan said that the ICAR has launched the KIRAN (Knowledge Innovation Repository of Agriculture in the Northeast) platform in 2012 to harness the power of scientific knowledge and technology innovation for strengthening agricultural production systems in the northeast region through dynamic partnership and convergence among the diverse stake holders.

"Achieving sustainable food production to feed the increasing population of the fragile land of the region is an enormous challenge. ICAR envisages a unit for agriculture, to ensure an effective and efficient use of knowledge and technology products, promoting innovative approaches and solutions aimed at improving human resource with right knowledge skills in the northeast region," he added.

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