Since the economy of the North East is basically agro-based, the primary reason for its poverty is agricultural backwardness. The very fact that the region has to look after 3.8 per cent of India's population with only 2.7 per cent of national income earned by its economy shows what poverty-distance it has to meet in order to catch up with the rest of the country. The region's per capita income-distance from all-India average has increased from Rs 1,706 in 1993-94 to Rs 7,000 in 2005-06. In the region, agriculture offers livelihood to 78 per cent of its population of whom 60 per cent are cultivators, 10 per cent are agricultural labourers and the rest 8 per cent are engaged in allied activities like livestock, pisciculture, horticulture, forestry, etc. Thus, the region's economic fate is linked to the farm sector. The proportion of cultivable wasteland is considerable in the region, ranging from 1,000 hectare in Tripura to 4,41,000 hectare in Meghalaya, which comes to more than 20 per cent at present. This amount of land can be brought into cultivation (to the extent of 8 lakh hectares) and, since the average yield rate of foodgrains in the region is around 1,520 kg per hectare, the annual avoidable loss of foodgrains on this account works out to approximately 1.21 lakh tonnes per annum. Apart from this, a considerable amount of cultivable land gets lost every year due to erosion. This is in addition to largescale damage caused by devastating floods, which are a regular phenomenon, particularly in Assam. According to a report of the Asian Development Bank, the ever-widening Brahmaputra has been annually eroding on an average 3,900 hectares of land, mostly cultivable, for the last several years and the annual crop loss is estimated to be 600 tonnes. According to agricultural experts, the size of operational holdings of less than 2.0 hectares is uneconomic and should be termed as small and marginal holdings. By this standard, all the states of this region save Arunachal Pradesh are found to suffer from uneconomic holdings ranging from 0.97 ha in Tripura to 1.77 ha in Meghalaya as against 3.61 ha in Punjab and 1.57 ha in the country as a whole. The average size of operational holding in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh is 6.8 ha and 3.7 ha respectively. What is more important is that more than 60 per cent of total operational holdings of the region are less than one ha, while only 18 per cent account for more than 2 ha. Thus, 60 per cent of the land holdings under existing pattern of technology are uneconomic and less suitable to scientific cultivation, proper tilling and use of improved implements. Naturally, the cost of labour, time, cattle power and other inputs are high and yield rate is low. As against 3.8 of India's population, the gross cropped area of NER is 2.7 per cent (these figures are 2.6 per cent and 2.0 per cent for Assam). The yield rate being low, one can easily imagine the extent of disparity between the demand for and supply of food grains and non-food crops from the region's own production. Hence, the quantum of import from outside. Irrigation facility in the region is one of the worst in India. The proportion of gross irrigated area to total cropped area in the region as a whole presently works out to only 9.8 per cent as against 40 per cent in the country's total, the worst being the case of Assam with 5.5 per cent and the highest in Manipur at 35.9 per cent. What is still more perturbing is the fact that there has been a decline in the proportion during the period from 1990-91 to 2003-04 in all the states of the region except Tripura where the proportion of gross irrigated area to total cropped area increased from 8.1 per cent to 13.8 per cent during the period. The heaviest decline in the ratio is recorded by Meghalaya from 35.2 per cent in 1990-91 to 22.4 per cent in 2003-04, while the highest-irrigated state Manipur and Meghalaya, which recorded larger than all-India proportion in 1990-91 at 39.1 per cent and 35.2 per cent respectively have come down much below the country's average in 2003-04. The yield rate of food grains naturally is low in the region at 1,520 kg per ha in 2003-04 as against 1,562 kg per ha in the country as a whole. This low level is mainly due to the poor score of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The yield of foodgrains in Assam at 1,419 kg per ha is not only below the all-India level, it is also lowest among all NE states with respect to every item of foodgrain. Though yield rate of rice as well as total foodgrains in this period has registered a rise in all the states of the region as against a decline in the country as a whole, the same is higher than the all-India figure in Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura in rice and these states along with Meghalaya and Nagaland in total foodgrains in the year 2003-04. The yield rate of wheat in the region is lower than in the country's total at 2,618 kg per ha, the region's highest is in Nagaland at 2,125 kg per ha followed by Tripura at 2,000 kg per ha. The yield rate of pulses in India is very low at only 556 kg per ha. All the states of the region except Assam account for higher productivity with the highest rate of around 1,000 kg per ha in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland as in 2003-04. Manipur registered the region's highest yield rate total for food grains at 2,305 kg per ha, followed by Tripura with 2,179 kg per ha as against 1,520 kg in the region and 1,562 kg in the country as a whole. With respect to non-food crops, the yield rate of cotton is lower than the all-India average in all the states of the region except Mizoram, while that of rapeseed and mustard is higher in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram. Though Nagaland records more than the all-India productivity in jute, all the states of the region are far worse in sugarcane and banana. Potatoes grow at higher than national average rate only in Tripura, while turmeric is a distinct advantage of Mizoram at 9,333 kg per ha again the all-India yield of 4,580 kg. With respect to ginger, however, the yield rate in the region is much higher than the country's average except in Tripura and Manipur, the highest being in Nagaland at 13,500 kg per ha as against 3,420 kg in the country's total and 6,052 kg in the region as a whole. Livestock farming is a distinct advantage in the region since its cattle population is more than 4 per cent and the miltch cattle comprise 4.8 per cent due to unscientific rearing. The region's fish production was 2.4 lakh tonnes in 2004-05 as against all-India production of 63 lakh tonnes. Egg production also has a high prospect in the region which presently produces 3.6 per cent of the country's production. In spite of this, the demand for fish and egg is so high that the region has to import from outside double the quantum it produces. North-East produces 3.6 per cent of India's total volume of vegetables and 6 per cent of fruits of which mention should be made of pineapple in particular, in which the region produces 40 per cent of the country's total mainly in Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura. It can be understood from the region's production trend that the benefits of India's Green Revolution never reached this part of the country which today badly needs another revolution with moderns technology and proper planning. The vast majority of operational holdings being uneconomic in size, bold measures need to be taken to consolidate them on co-operative lines. Since income-earning capacity of the region from non-farm sectors is too poor, agricultural growth must be substantially higher than its growth rate of population not only to attain self-sufficiency but to achieve a food surplus economy to ensure food security on the one hand and to strengthen its capacity to build a food-processing sector on the other. The yield rate of food grains is Manipur is highest in the region because of its better irrigation facility. The region's largest concern should be how to substantially hike its irrigation facility. The quickest solution lies in small irrigation projects and supply base power has to be strengthened to feed the irrigation network as well as the manufacturing sector. While the yield rates of rice, the staple food of the region, needs to be largely increased particularly is Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, the production of pulses (with higher than all- India yield rate) should be encouraged in all the states of the region. The same may be said of mustard and rapeseed in Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. Jute production should be encouraged in Nagaland, and Tripura enjoys a comparative advantage in the production of potatoes. Horticulture could play a major role in the region's economy, particularly with respect to banana, orange, pineapples and vegetable production. The yield rate of ginger is very high in Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya, while Mizoram is famous for her turmeric. These crops must be encouraged. The region produces as much as 40 per cent of the country's pineapple production in Meghalaya, Tripura, Manipur and Assam which need on all-out boost. Moreover, there is ample possibility of huge production in livestock farming and pisciculture in the region. If a favourable climate of adequate input-base and little patronage is built up around agriculture and its allied sectors, it is possible to revolutionise the farm sector giving a new direction to economic uplift of NER. (The writer was former Professor and HOD, Dept of Economics, GU)