Enhancing Agricultural Development in North East India: Insights from RABI Conference 2016

1. Key Recommendations for Agriculture development in North Eastern Region Topics - Horticulture, Organic, Post-Harvest, Mechanisation, Credit RABI CONFERENCE 2016 Strategic Takeaways

2. Group II members • Chairman: Shri SK Mittal, IAS, ACS-Assam • Co Chair: Shri Kansal, IAS, Secretary Horti-Sikkim • Moderator: Shri ShakilAhammed, IAS, JS-MIDH

3. North East Region – Agriculture • NER covers 7.9% of country’s total geographical area, 3.8% population but producesonly 1.5 % ofcountry’s total food grain. • NER produces 5% of country’s horticulture, however surplusis wasted due lack of physical connectivity with markets. • About 70% of the region is hilly, topography varies within each statemaking infrastructure development difficult. • Community land holding and small/non-cadastral land holding restricts innovation to traditional agricultural practices. • Terrain limits scope for consolidation for economy of scale and farm mechanisation. • Lack of individual ownerships restricts ease of credit flow to farmers and allied businesses.

4. Exclusive Crops of North East • The NER offers diverse variety of crop types. • Each state has a spread and overlap of crops: • Arunachal Pradesh: small millet, maize, ginger, kiwi, cardamom • Assam: tea, rapeseed, pineapple, mustard, citrus, sugarcane • Manipur: chillies, rice, ginger, passion fruit, pineapple • Meghalaya: ginger, potatoes, sesame, strawberry, cashew • Mizoram: dragon fruit, anthurium, ginger, maize, sesame • Nagaland: millet, maize, citrus, passion fruit, kiwi, cardamom • Sikkim: ginger, citrus, orchids, cardamom • Tripura: natural rubber, coconut, bananas and pineapple. • NER has a ready market in rest of urban India. • Low adoption of new varieties.

5. General Recommendation -Agriculture • Develop NER for “paramparagatkrishi” with branding &market linkage. • Emhasis on Protected Cultivation for fruits, vegetables & flowers with PHM • Need to develop agribusiness concept in NER. Promote private sector investment in Agriculture in the North Eastern Region. • Research & Redesign tools / mechanisation and promote Custom Hiring Centres for open field hill cultivation.(0.5kw/Ha to 2kw/Ha) • Utilise “North Eastern Region Farm Machinery Training and Testing institute” (NERFMTTI) for skilling for farm machines O&M. • Utilise DONER/NEC to streamline fulfilling of minimum requirements for banks to consider credit sanctions. • States must prioritise crops so as to create market linked capacities (clustering, projectising, marketing).

6. Backdrop -Horticulture • Open field traditional cultivation, mostly organic by default. • Smaller -holding, Lesser yield, • Low farm power availability, poor long term capital formation. • Protected cultivation (PC) is a growing trend in the NER (1300 ha in last year) and replaces jhum cultivation • Facilitates high value crop production including floriculture. • Allows for cross-seasonal production and allows organic practices. • Provides higher yields with improved quality and optimises use of resource.

7. Recommendation - Horticulture • Target development of protected cultivation units in Jhum areas and in difficult terrain. • Focus PC development in regional clusters to achieve logistical scale. • Concentrate horticulture development to niche crop types so as to build an exclusive NER brand. • Connect clusters of horticulture farms with post-harvest handling centres through rope ways. • Promote & develop more nurseries & TC labs for better planting material for quality produce. • Water harvesting and integrated farming (bee-keeping, mushroom, vermi-compost) be linked with horticulture development.

8. Back-drop - Post Harvest Management • The NER has surplus of perishable produce - mostly sold in local markets only. • Evacuation of surplus into other markets in the country and neighbouring countries is not developed because of unstructured production. • The region has a community based land ownership structure which restricts bank credit for PHM projects. • The scale of PHM is impacted by other infrastructure (hill roads, railways linkage, etc.) • High Literacy levels & better technology adoption allows for high-tech horticulture and allied activities.

9. Recommendations -PHM • Convert surplus into economy of scale by producing focused crops in clusters to be linked with logistics. • Prioritise to develop multiple evacuation centres, to bring immediate logistics connection with the unified market. • Promote wholesale buyers to register in eNAM in North East by providing them priority support for PHM & market infrastructure. • Provide dedicated retail market outlets in top 5 cities for NER produce eg. Delhi Haats. • formalize and upscale existing trade through Bangladesh& Myanmar • Link to foreign markets through regional sea ports and airports. • APEDA freight subsidy for exports to be extended to spearhead domestic market movement also.

10. Recommendations -PHM • Target niche markets for specialized crops as well as volume business in off season period. • Pack-house at road head as nerve center • Handles output and delivers inputs • Linked to farms with ropeways • SME sized processing unit at each packhouse • Each packhouse to service closest rail head with reefer trucks • DONER/NEDFI to facilitate bank credit and DPR preparations / appraisals. • Projects by entrepreneurs from NER to be exempted from mandatory credit linkage subject to financial closure. • FPOs and farmer groups to be promoted for infrastructure creation and market linkage. Recommended (NER) Build 1500 pack-houses Link 3000 reefer trucks 1-2 container rail terminals Air-freight for perishables

11. Backdrop -Credit linkage • NER has lowest share in Credit vs other geographical areas with Ground Level Credit (GLC) of 0.66% to total in 2015-16. • In comparison GLC in Southern region was 38.5%, Northern was 25.1%, East/West/Centre were at around 12% each. • Crop Loan was Rs 1551 crores, term loans of Rs 4218 crores in 2015-16. • Poor recovery climate discouraging banks, credit flow & timely release of funds NABARD Rs Crores

12. Recommendation -Bank Credit • On same pattern as priority sector lending, banks to allocate separate funds for development of infrastructure in NER like – irrigation, quality planting material, Protected cultivation, CHC, processing and PHM(Gross Capital Formation). • Increase KCC issuance to farmers (only 37% farmers with KCC). • Enhance penetration of banking services for greater outreach. • Collateral against community land holding to be endorsed and/or joint liability facilitated by DONER/NEC. • FPOs/SHGs/FIG/JLG to be promoted for creation of Agri-infrastructure, marketing and freight. • DONER to set up Venture Capital fund to promote integrated projects in the North Eastern Region.

13. Cluster plus Integration! Orchards & Poly Houses Farms & Green Houses Modern Pack-house Ropeways • Sort, Grade, Package, Precool • Dispatch Centre, local and distant • Order management • Harvest feedback & Control • Extension and Inputs • mini-FPI Unit Road way Railhead • Integrated and market linked approach to cluster based development in NER. • Spearheads sustainable agriculture.

14. NER Tables the Complete Basket Focussed production | Economy of scale | Post Harvest Management | Credit Flow | Private Sector Investment

15. बागवानी मिशन Horticulture Mission Thank you End of Deck Rabi Conference 2016