A Mokokchung Times Feature
Nagaland, a predominantly agrarian economy, has 71% of its population dependent upon agriculture contributing a nominal GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) of about 0.319 lakh crore rupees to India’s economy. The state has a considerable number of natural resources like minerals, petroleum and hydropower. It has unexploited reserves of around 600 metric tons (MT) of crude oil and more than 20 MT of hydrocarbons.
However, economic development of Nagaland depends primarily on the achievements of agriculture and its allied sectors. It contributes to nearly 30 per cent of the state GDP. The agro-climatic conditions in Nagaland provide an ideal habitat for horticulture and floriculture, currently cultivating in an area of 88.35 thousand hectares. In the past few years, the area under major agricultural crops increased by 7 per cent which increased the total food grain production.
By 2021, the state witnessed a steady progress in rice production to about 7.55 lakh metric tons as compared to 3.84 lakhs in early 2000s. Yet, the state is still not self-sufficient with its rice production. This, on the surface, can be attributed to the primitive method of farming and jhum cultivation practices. However, the real issues bogging agricultural production down are fragmented land-holdings, which keeps them from upgrading or adopting to new farming techniques, lack of stable markets, lack of mechanization, lack of agricultural infrastructure, and lack of education and awareness. Such factors not only hold back the farming community from progressing but restrict the state’s potential to generate revenue on raw materials.
Still, Nagaland has the natural advantage of abundant raw materials. The diverse agricultural climatic zones of the state make it a great location to grow a wide variety of fruits and green vegetables, Tea, Coffee, Cardamom, Agarwood, Ginger etc. and has potential to be a sourcing hub for agriculture products. This prolific potential, however, is languishing because marketing arrangements are inadequate in the state. The absence of efficient cold storage chains has led to massive crop wastage and farmers were left to bear the losses.
As of 2019, Nagaland’s total horticulture production stood at 847.83 thousand MT which is a massive increase as compared to past decades. Nevertheless, the data suggests that in spite of favorable agro-climatic conditions prevailing in the region and successful interventions by centrally sponsored schemes such as Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) which focuses on enhancing productivity and augmenting farmer’s income, the state’s productivity remains quite low.
A documentation from Rupa Chinai’s ‘Understanding India’s Northeast: A Reporter’s Journal’, has locals from Chizami village in Phek district saying that the rash development policies by the state government has brought more damage than good. The villagers claimed that in the hunt for economic growth, farmers were encouraged to grow cash crops by abandoning Rice crops. This resulted in farmers producing a surplus of produce such as ginger, cardamom or passion fruit only to be wasted as there were no infrastructures for preservation, no local control of the trade or any forms of reliable transportation systems and markets.
Such incidences highlight the lack of proper planning and educational backwardness among the policy makers and the farmers. Thereby, initiatives that reduces wastage levels, including adequate infrastructure, research and development for processed food and packaging, innovation in farm preservation systems and skill development/post-harvest infrastructures and educating the farmers through seminars and demonstrations is the need of the hour.