Northeast - the epicentre of the second Green Revolution !

Here is another interesting article on Agriculture. http://www.hindustantimes.com/…/story-jzP7Hsb9n5Swhzdb6jvt9…

Mr. Mukesh Aghi, President of the US-India Business Council (USIBC) will host a meeting with US Department of Agriculture under-secretary for farm and foreign agricultural service Michael Scuse, to discuss about ushering the sequel of the GREEN REVOLUTION to ensure long term food security for India.

Sadly the article has no mention of the Northeast. Northeast, despite its enormous potential for agricultural growth, has sadly remained absent from the green revolution of the sixties as well — largely due to sustained apathy from the Centre and lack of enterprise on the part of its state governments. 

This mindset has to change.

Northeast is liberally endowed with deep fertile topsoil, copious water and plentiful sunlight. The eastern zone of the country for instance, possesses nearly 46% of the country’s entire water resources but uses only 3% of that for crop irrigation. We have seen positive changes in recent years. As per some news reports, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh seem to have turned to food surplus regions. 

Can the Centre make Northeast the epic-centre of the second Green Revolution especially for high-volume low-value commodities such as rice, and high value citrus commodities. The north-western zone (Punjab, Haryana etc) and parts of the South are facing dwindling water reserves and are not ideal for high-volume low-value commodities like rice and wheat. They can instead focus on low-volume high-value crops. The sooner this policy shift takes place, the better it will be for balanced agricultural growth in India.

We, in Assam, should therefore raise our voices, write articles and form lobbies to bring in the second Green Revolution to Assam and the Northeast.