Cultivation of high-value crops relevant in North Eastern region: Official

Cultivation of high-value crops is relevant in the North Eastern region given the small landholding pattern, a senior official of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) said Friday.

Value of commercial horticulture has emerged as one of the potential agricultural enterprises in accelerating the growth of the economy, said the assistant general manager of APEDA, Sunita Rai. Speaking at a seminar organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on 'Challenges and prospects of high-value horticulture crops in the northeast, she said commercial horticulture can play an important role in poverty alleviation and employment generation programmes.

There was a need to develop high-value horticulture, policy issues related to water, procurement price, value addition, post-harvest processing, nutrient-based fertilizer subsidy, product marketability, alternative horticulture and new products, Rai said.

ICC regional director, Ishantor Sobhapandit said the northeastern region can play a major role in taking India to new heights of agro and food processing by leveraging its natural and human resource advantages. Northeast India produces a large number of fruits, vegetable and spices having high commercial value with both plain and valley land suitable for most of the commercially produced tropical and subtropical fruit crops like banana, pineapple, citrus, coconut, jackfruit, litchi, guava, etc, he said.

Enormous variations of crops as well as practice of growing vegetables both in kharif and rabi are seen in the region, Sobhapandit added.