Sustainable Livelihood Development through Fruits and Vegetables Processing in the Northeastern India
- Part 1 -

Ngangkham Joykumar Singh *

7th State Level Orange festival 2010 held at Tamenglong at Tamenglong District HQ on 12th December 2010. - Pix ::Ramkung Pamei

The scenario of fruits and vegetables processing in the northeastern India is more or less discouraging and has received little attention. The opportunity-gap, with a little effect can be filled to a great extent with research and extension activities in the region. In spite of excellent market potential and higher profit margin on fruit and vegetable based products, rural mass shows little interest towards this sector. The motto of the policy should be such that a grower earns more profit, the fruits and vegetables processing sector will boost up in the North Eastern region and more people will be fascinated towards this sector.

The Northeastern India is a chicken-necked region connected to the mainland with a narrow corridor and touching the International boundaries of Myanmar, China, Bhutan and Nepal. The region comprises eight States namely; Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. These eight States cover an area of 2,63,179 sq.km. constituting 8 per cent of country's total geographical area and account for only around 3.76 per cent of the total population and 3.87 per cent of country's output. The total population of the region is 45.59 million.

Out of which 311.69 lakhs in Assam, 13.83 lakhs in Arunachal Pradesh, 27.22 lakhs in Manipur, 10.91 lakhs in Mizoram, 36.71 lakhs in Tripura, 29.64 lakhs in Meghalaya, 19.88 lakhs in Nagaland and 6.08 lakhs in Sikkim are found according to Census 2011.

The common feathers of the region are ecosystem diversity, poor accessibility, ethnicity and rich biodiversity. About 80% of the population is tribal. The primary factor for their economy is agriculture, contributing up to 45% of the total economy of the region. Poverty is extremely rampant in the region and on an average 40% of the people is below poverty line.

The proportion of the population below poverty line in the year 2004-05 was reported at 31.1% in Arunachal Pradesh, 34.4% in Assam, 38.0 % in Manipur, 16.1% in Meghalaya, 15.3% in Mizoram, 31.1% in Sikkim, 9.0% in Nagaland and 40.6 % in Tripura. The most intriguing fact is that the BPL statistics shows that the region is lagging behind the national level by over a decade.

The contribution of agriculture to the state domestic product is not substantial and its growth is also low. The state domestic product at current price in 2007-2008 is Rs.50,022 crore in Assam, Rs. 8,350 crore in Tripura, Rs. 4,850 crore in Nagaland, Rs. 5,971 crore in Maghalaya, Rs. 4,573 crore in Manipur, Rs. 2,860 crore in Arunachal Pradesh and Rs. 2,344 crore in Mizoram.

Status of fruits and vegetables processing

Fresh fruits and vegetables are protective foods and valuable sources of vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre. Most of the fruits contain a high calorific value per unit area as compared to cereals, while wheat provides just 3 million calories per hectare, banana provides 18.9, papaya 15.0 and grapes 10.5 million calorie per hectares. Because of high productivity and economic value, they offer much better economic returns per unit area as compared to cereal crops.

It has been reported that the average value addition per hectare in case of fruit crops is four times more than cereal crops. Also, fruits and vegetables offer maximum potentiality for generating employment. In addition to the improvement in economic status of the grower, fruits tress check soil erosion and maintain ecological balance. The production of fruits and vegetables is gradually increasing due to improved horticultural practices and expansion of area under cultivation.

India is uniquely placed to produce almost all types of fruits and vegetables. The present production of fruits and vegetables in India is 45 and 91 million tones, respectively being the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world after china.

However, its share in the export marketing of these commodities is extremely low and constitute only about 0.6 % of the world export market. Among fruits, 59% of the world production of mangoes, 14% of banana, 8% of pineapple, 12.4% of onion, 6% of potato, 7% of tomato, 10% of cauliflower and 6% of cabbage are produced in India.

India produces over 230 million tons of food grains and about 130 million tons of food fruits and vegetables. The food processing sector is recognised as having an important role in improving agricultural productivity, reducing in wastage of fruits and vegetables providing better nutrition and improving food availability for the domestic market.

The present per capital availability for the fruits and vegetables is only 67 and 145 g as against the recommended daily intake of 120 g and 280 g, respectively, therefore preventing or even minimizing their losses would greatly augment the availability of the nutrients through relatively cheap sources.

A variety of horticultural plantation crops are produced in Northeastern region like

• banana,
• citrus,
• pineapple,
• cashew nut,
• jackfruit,
• coconut,
• tea,
• rubber,
• guava,
• papaya
• along with vegetable crops and
• rubber crops.

The total spice production is 5.5% of national production; pineapple production is 46.49% of national production.

Northeastern region by virtue of its diverse agro-climatic conditions, varied soil type and abundant rainfall has the promises of becoming an excellent sourcing point for high value horticultural produce and value added products unique to the region for onward marketing both within the country and abroad. There is ample scope for increasing the area under such plantations.

Most of the produces go waste during the production due to lack of processing and storage facilities and inadequate infrastructural facilities. There is great potential of processing these products and interactions with food processing units in Northeastern region.

Efforts have been made by APEDA to build external market linkage for food processing units in Northeastern region with major players in food sectors like Hindustan liver, Dabur, ITC and other companies, APEDA is also setting up model organic farms for Joha rice and sugarcane in Assam, passion fruit in Manipur and pineapple in Tripura.

Major constraints for fruits and vegetables processing in the Northeastern India

Various constraints have been indentified for such a dismal situation. The main reasons for poor fruits and vegetables processing in the Northeastern India are:

1. Lack of plan land for fruits and vegetables production
2. Lack of awareness about the rich potential of fruits and vegetables industry for employment and economic upliftment of the region
3. Lack of awareness about the potential of fruits and vegetables
4. Lack of arrangements processing, glut situation occurs which become a disincentive for production
5. Lack of quality standards and HACCP practices narrow down the quality of fruits and vegetables products
6. Lack of awareness /training about the quality standards among the consumers and sweet makers reduces the scope fruits and vegetables processing
7. Lack of connectivity from city to city in hilly and forest coverage

Due to the above limitations, fruits and vegetables processing sector in Northeastern India is in its primitive stage. There is a need to give special attention towards this region for development of fruits and vegetables production and processing sector in order to develop the livelihood of the rural mass in the region.

To be continued ....

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* Ngangkham Joykumar Singh wrote this article for The Sangai Express .
The writer is Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Engineering, College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University, Iroisemba, Imphal
This article was posted on November 22, 2011.

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