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Organic Agriculture – A definition

“Organic agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment.”

The North Eastern Region is well endowed with natural resources and sustainable agro-climatic conditions for agro-based produce.
• The Region comprises of eight states viz. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram & Sikkim
• Most of the farmers in these states practice traditional methods of ‘Jhum’ cultivation commonly known as ‘slash & burn’; which is around 70% of the cropped area, especially in the hill states
• Large areas covered by forests
• Spices are cultivated in several states of the North East, primarily in hilly areas, away from main towns and cities. Terrain is hilly with layers of terraced cultivation involving multiple crops in the valleys
• Holdings are of minimum size – farmers are willing to increase area under cultivation subject to assured orders
• Generations have been involved in farming of various horticultural and other items employing basic methods
• Scope for introducing of improved and cost effective methods
• Road conditions in hills restrict movement of bulk products
• Farmers comprise primarily of tribals, wherein almost entire villages are engaged in farming

Socio-cultural:

• Integrated with the socio-economic fabric of the rural tribal society
• Community based practice-equity
• Plays a central role in uniting villages & clans, and integrating the people
• Egalitarian mode of production, with women playing an important economic role

Economy:

• Food sufficiency rather than income generation
• No organized market infrastructure; only 2% boundary shared with mainland
• Prevents the farmers from accessing the large market outside the region
• Local modes of commerce

Ecological:

• Sustainable
• Appropriate crop-mix or short duration crops for maintenance & enhancing the soil fertility status

Organic farming practices of the farmers in most of the NE States are through application of a set of cultural, biological & mechanical practices that support the cycling of on-farm resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. These are as follows:

• Maintain & enhance soil & water quality
• Conserve wetlands, woodlands & wildlife
• Avoid use of synthetic fertilizers
• Use of organic seeds, mostly from their traditional own stock to protect integrity of their crops
• Crop rotation, so as to interrupt the insect life-cycle & suppress soil borne plant disease, prevent soil erosion & build organic matter
• Manage pests, weeds & diseases

Due to its unique agro-climatic condition, the NE region is regarded as one of the top three bio-diversity hotspots in the world. The region supports numerous varieties of Fruits & vegetable, many of these are not seen in other parts of the country. The region occupies a unique position in the world map of citrus occurrence & diversity. It holds 17 species, out of these 8 are indigenous to this region only. It is unfortunate that despite being a natural home & possessing wide diversity, none of these states, citrus production & productivity figures could so far make any significant impact on the national average.

The main fruit & vegetable & spices produces in the region are as follows:

FRUITS: Citrus Orange(Khasi mandarin), Pineapple, Lime/Lemon, Jackfruit, Apple, Banana, Cashewnut, Guava, Kiwi, Litchi, Mango, Papaya, Passion fruit, Walnut, Strawberry etc.

SPICES: Ginger ( all three varieties e.g. Non-fibrous, semi-fibrous & fibrous), Turmeric ( with high curcumin content), Black pepper, Chilli, Large cardamom, King Chilli, Bay leaves, Pipli (piper longum), Star Anise, Coriander, Cumin etc.

VEGETABLES: Cabbage, Potato, Cauliflower, Brinjal, Okra, Peas, Tomato, Radish, Bitter gourd, Carrot, Cucumber, Bean, etc.

Besides the above, there are some specific varieties of F&V being produced in some states, like Grape, Strawberry, Colocasia, Chowchow, Tapioca, leafy vegetables in Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, though production is limited at the moment due to lack of post harvest facilities, processing as well as forward linkage.

The entire North East has a vast reserve of medicinal plants, and a rich culture of folk medicine. Out of a total of over 3200 varieties of medicinal plants in the country, around 800 species are found within the North East region.

Growing popularity of Ayurvedic medicine in recent years have increased the demand for natural herbal medicinal products manifold within the country. However, only professional farmers from the states like Uttaranchal, U.P., Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh have been able to take advantage of the market. But in absence of commercial farming in NE, the farmers could not avail this new found opportunity.

The following medicinal plants are suitable for NE Region:

Acoruscalamus, Atemisiaannua, Asparagasracemosus, Neem, Brahmi, coleus forskholi, Curcuma longa, curcuma Zadoria, Amlakhi, Tulsi, Picorhizakurroa, piper nigrum, RauwolfiaSerpentina, TaxusBaccata etc.

The major potential Aromatic/essential oil bearing crops suitable for NE region are:

Java Citronella, Lemon Grass, Pepper Mint(MenthaPiperita), Pyrethrum, Rosa Damascena, Palmarosa, Vetivar, Patchouli, Geranium etc.

‘Stevia Rebaudiana’ or MouTulshi which is a natural sugar substitute & also calorie free. There appears to be tremendous opportunity for promotion of this wonder plant in the hilly NE region for its large scale plantation.

Geographical Indication (GI) accorded products in NE Region are:

• Assam- Ginger from KarbiAnglong district
• Assam- Litchi from Tezpur in Sonitpur district
• Meghalaya- Orange ‘Khasi mandarin’ variety
• Sikkim- Large Cardamom
• Mizoram- Bird Eye Chilli
• Manipur- Kachai Lemon
• Tripura- ‘Queen’ pineapple
• Arunachal Pradesh- Orange
• Nagaland- Tree Tomato

GI tag will help to protect  these exclusive special local crops and also pave the way for better branding & marketing of these products both within the country  & international markets.

Challenges being faced by farmers:

• Benchmark survey of the region for identifying the potential areas for organic food production
• Lack of R&D and extension strategies for promotion of organic cultivation
• Lack of sufficient trained Human Resource persons for production of organic inputs like bio-fertilizers, vermi compost, botanicals for pest management etc.
• Insufficient technical assistance to farmers in post- harvest technology, handling, processing & value addition
• High certification charges levied by national/international organic certification agencies on the farmers is a major hurdle to farmers
• Lack of cold chain infrastructure, storage & processing facilities near the production centers
• Lack of marketing support outside the region; as there is no demand for organic products within the region.

The entire horticulture scenario in the NE region has not improved at par with the rest of the country, and the region’s potential has not been tapped, mainly due to lack of market led production practices, poor commercial understanding of farmers, insufficient infrastructure at the farm level, poor transportation system, inadequate road network, lack of post-harvest infrastructure like dedicated markets, pack houses, cold storages, sorting grading lines, processing industries etc, which leads to not only very high (about 15-20%) post harvest losses but also high dependency of farmers on middlemen for marketing.

Value chain processes for organic products:

• The value chains for different agriculture products in different states are in practice, truncated value chains
• About 20-30% of the produce gets wasted at field level
• Entire produce is not sold at market level
• Farmers sell directly to consumers in the local village markets, due to low volume of produce
• Marketing & post harvest infrastructure is yet to be scaled-up to improve the overall value chain
• Existing markets are not very supportive to the farmers due to traditional system of procurement, and as a result of lack of bargaining power of the farmers due to poor economic condition
• Markets are found to be lacking in basic facilities
• Last but not the least, in most of the states either there is no regulated market or most of the trade is being practiced in non-regulated /traditional markets.

Case Study of Turmeric – a typical scenario:

• The “Lakadong” variety of turmeric with the highest curcumin content is cultivated in the Jaintia Hills District of Meghalaya
• An average of 3.5 quintals of turmeric is produced per hectare
• A family with 10 hectares of land should typically produce 3.5 MT
• Given the assurance of a satisfactory price and assured orders, the cropping pattern can be altered to accommodate more area under turmeric
• The fields producing turmeric are remote with use of traditional methods, both for cultivation and processing
• Processing comprises mainly drying followed by grinding
• Totally organic methods of cultivation were noticed during field visit.
• The cultivation season extends from sowing during late spring (April-May) to harvesting in Dec-Jan, continuing till March

Potential Crops For Marketing within and outside the Country:

1. Ginger: (Jan-April)

The ‘Nadia’ variety for its low fibre & high oil content found suitable for table purposes, which mainly grows in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam & Meghalaya is the most preferred variety in domestic as well as in international markets. These are sold as ‘fresh ginger’ in gunny bags in the domestic markets. And after proper cleaning, sorting & grading packed in cardboard cartons exported mainly to west Asian markets.
The other use of this variety is for processing into making ginger paste for home use. Some major FMCG companies like ‘Dabur’ has branded this as Homemadeand have been marketing within & outside the country for several years now.
The ‘Dried Ginger’ whole, sliced or in powder form finds favour with the exporters for world markets to be used in food preparations and is one of the major products exported from India.

2. Turmeric: (Jan- April)

The North East region is home to Turmeric ‘the wonder spice’ with very high ‘curcumin’ content; in the Lakadong variety of Jowai in Meghalaya with the highest at 7-12% as well as the Megha I variety with 4-7 % are higher than any other varieties in the country have been the craze amongst the pharmaceutical, neutraceutical as well as Ayurvedic& beauty care & cosmetic product manufacturers.
The fresh turmeric is locally used, mainly within the region; in various culinary preparations. The dried form, both as a whole or slice are taken outside by traders to Delhi, Kanpur , Jaipur etc. and mixed with other major varieties with low cur cumin content to process & produce hundreds of brands being marketed in India & some are also exported worldwide. The irony is that, due to absence of proper state of the art processing facility within the region, these high value agri produce are still unknown to the consumers.

3. Chilies: (Nov-Jan)

The ‘Raja’ or ‘Naga’ chilli which is recognized worldwide as one of the hottest species in the world with maximum capsaicin content measured at 1.10 million SHU (scoville heat units) is the other star product from this region which finds the same fate as the turmeric. Because of its high pungency, these are mixed with other low pungency varieties from Guntur & elsewhere to produce various branded products and sold everywhere; but never mentioned its place of origin. Its one of the major use is in the preparation of hundreds of branded snacks varieties in the country.
There is another unique chili variety in the NE region called ‘Bird’s Eye chilli’ which is smaller but with high capsaicin content. For many years these have been procured by traders from here & exported to USA & Europe for making pepper spray (stun guns) being used by ladies as self protection device. Unfortunately, both these exotic products are not getting their due recognition for lack of processing facility locally.

4. Black Rice: (Nov-Dec)

Pigmented rice has been consumed for a long time in Asia,especially China, Japan, Korea and many other countries in Southeast Asia. Black rice is a type of pigmented rice with black bran covering the endosperm of the rice kernel. It hastypical nutty flavor, aroma which turns deep dark purple color when cooked. It takes longer time to cook and is stickier when compared to white rice. In ancient China, black rice is called forbidden rice because it was considered as the finest grain and only served to the emperors and forbidden elsewhere. According to the data reported by Chaudhary (2003) the richest country in black rice resources is China (62%) followed by Sri Lanka (8.6%), Indonesia (7.2%), India (5.1%), the Philippines(4.3%), Bangladesh (4.1%), and few in Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar. The demand for black rice has been increasing in today’s world due to their multiple biological activities because of the presence of phenolic and antioxidant compounds. Many research studies had shown the health benefits of black rice. According to a study presented at the 240th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, health benefits of black rice of China includes prevention of cancer, diabetes, heart diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, gallstones etc. Black rice is represented as potential source of anti-oxidants. There is a need for promotion of this rice as functional foods because of therapeutic benefits. In India, black rice is cultivated only in few areas like North East India. In Manipur, two varieties of aromatic black rice are grown. They are Poireitonchakhao and Chakhaoamubi. However, due to lack of documentation, people are not aware of importance of black rice in India. Although black rice is known for its medicinal and health benefits in other countries, the knowledge regarding the importance of black rice is lacking behind in India. In this context the study has been conducted to study the physical characteristic, cooking properties, nutritional composition and phytonutrient contents of black rice.It was be concluded from the study that black rice was a good source of protein, dietary fiber, zinc, iron and manganese. Phytonutrients like polyphenol and phytate contents were higher than white rice. Black rice also had high antioxidant activity. Therefore black rice could be a source of nutraceuticals. The traditional foods of black rice could be modified to incorporate in the formulation of therapeutic diets.
( Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Rural Home Science, Dharwad University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad – 580 005, Karnataka, India)

5. Black Pepper (Piper nigrum) (Dec-March)

This is one of the other major spices found in the NE states in its current form of grown without chemical fertilizers as in the case of most of the agri produce of the region where the tribal farmers can neither afford to purchase or they are least interested to take up commercial farming unlike their friends from the other parts of the country.

6. PiperLongum (peepli): (Dec-April)

This is another exotic spice from the region which is popular with Ayurveda medicine manufacturers like Dabur, Baidyanath & others in the manufacture of popular brand Chyawanprash. Mainly grown in Meghalaya, this spice if also found in Nagaland to a lesser extent.

7. Large cardamom: (Nov- April)

Termed as the most important spice crop of Sikkim which earns a substantial amount of revenue to this small Himalayan state. It has been continuously growing in acreage in the state & the farmers are hugely benefitted from this cropwhich isalso being exported. In addition to Sikkim, this crop is also found to be grown in the state of Nagaland&Manipur but in a much smaller scale.

Major horticultural crops in NE region of India:

Assam: Banana, Citrus, Guava, Pineapple, Papaya, Jackfruit, Arecanut, Potato, Guava, Litchi, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Brinjal, Pea, Tomato, Ginger, Turmeric

Nagaland: Citrus, Pineapple, Banana, Papaya, Potato, Tomato, Cabbage, Okra, Ginger

Tripura: Citrus, Banana, Litchi, Pineapple, Peach, Papaya, Brinjal, Potato, Cauliflower, Tomato, Okra

Meghalaya: Pineapple, Citrus, Banana, Papaya, Guava, Passion fruits, Strawberry, Kiwi, Peach, Potato, Tomato, Brinjal, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Ginger, Turmeric

Arunachal Pradesh: Apple, Citrus, Banana, Pineapple, Guava, Kiwi, Peach, Passion fruits, Large cardamom, Black pepper, Ginger, Potato, Tomato, Cabbage

Manipur: Pineapple, Papaya, Banana, Jackfruit, Citrus, Peach, Kiwi, Passion fruit, Cabbgae, Pea, Tomato, Cauliflower, Chilli, Ginger, Turmeric

Mizoram: Citrus, Banana, Passion fruit, Grape, Peach, Papaya, Chayote, Bitter gourd, Bean, Brinjal, Ginger, Turmeric, Birds Eye Chilli

Sikkim: Citrus, Kiwi, Banana, Potato, Tomato, Cabbage, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Pea, Okra