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Journalism of Courage
SHILLONG, Oct 2: The food shortage in the north-eastern region will continue to grow and reach a level of nearly two million tonnes by 2001, warned an agriculture scientist of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR).
V C Sharma, a senior scientist of the ICAR, North-Eastern Hill Region, Barapani said the region at present is deficient in foodgrains by about 1.72 million tonnes. With none of the states in the region self-sufficient in foodgrains production, the food shortage will rise to 1.99 million tonnes by 2000-2001 and increase further to 2.82 million tonnes in 2010-2011, mounting to 3.95 million tonnes by the year 2020-25.
By the year 2025-26 the foodgrains deficit in the region is expected to reach a level of 4.55 million tonnes, said the agriculture expert.
Sharma was delivering a talk on the “Perspective of agriculture in the north-eastern region,” organised at the youth hostel here recently by the North-Eastern Centre for Research and Development Studies (NCRD).
Sounding a word ofcaution, Sharma said that the growth in the foodgrains production in the region was not keeping pace with the rapid rise in the population. While the foodgrains production was increasing at an annual compound growth rate of 2.18 per cent, the population in the region was growing faster at the rate of 2.43 per cent.
Sharma identified shifting cultivation, faulty land ownership pattern, predominantly hilly terrain, ill-managed and indiscriminate use of natural resources, poor infrastructure and marketing facilities, lack of finance and low absorption of technologies as some of the major reasons for low agricultural productivity in the region.
He said the two major concerns in the region were low productivity and low cropping intensity. The average yields of three major crops such as rice, maize and wheat are far below the national average. To meet the projected food demands of the region, the average yield per hectare of foodgrains would have to be increased by 55 per cent, nearly one hundred per cent by2010 and 190 per cent by 2025, taking 1993-94 as the base, he said.
Sharma warned, alleviation of poverty will remain a distant dream unless attention is paid to agriculture in the north-eastern region. He pointed out that the economy of the region will continue to remain dependant on agriculture for many years to come as there were no industries and the tourism potential had not been exploited.
Pleading for increased use of plant nutrients in the region, the expert said, no country in the world could increase foodgrains production without the use of fertilisers. “We cannot expect any substantial increase in foodgrain production in the region unless balanced and adequate dose of nutrients is made available to the farmers.” He also called for appropriate government policies, new relevant technologies and good soil management practices to achieve self sufficiency in foodgrains production in the region.
