Agriculture

Meghalaya is basically an Agricultural State with about 80% of its total population depending entirely on Agriculture for their livelihood.

In Meghalaya, summer is for a period of about 5 months, from May to September, with torrential rains caused by the South West Monsoon. Rainfall varies from place to place and from altitude to altitude. The amount of rainfall over Cherrapunjee and Mawsynram is quite heavy. During the last two decades, it has ranged from 11,995 mm to 14,189 mm in Cherrapunjee and over Mawsynram it was 10,689 mm to 13,802 mm. Nature in its generous abundance, has bestowed Meghalaya a unique array of vegetation ranging from tropical and sub-tropical to temperate or near temperate.

The total cropped area in the State has increased by about 42 per cent during the last twenty-five years. Food grain production sector covers an area of over 60 per cent of the total crop area. With the introduction of different crops of high yielding varieties in the mid-seventies, remarkable increase in food grain production has been made. A major break through was achieved when High Yielding Varieties of paddy such as Masuri, Pankaj IR 8 and other improved varieties series especially IR 36 which is suitable for Rabi season, fitting in the multi-cropping system have been widely cultivated all over the feasible areas of the State. A spectacular achievement was obtained when Megha I and Megha II which are cold tolerant rice varieties developed by the ICAR North East Region at Umroi near Shillong was released in 1991-92 for the higher altitude regions where there was no High Yielding Rice varieties at all earlier.

Besides the major food crops of Rice and Maize, the State is also renowned for its Horticultural crops like Orange, Lemon, Pineapple, Guava, Litchi, Banana, Jack Fruits and Temperate fruits such as Plum, Pear, Peach etc..

Potato, Ginger, Turmeric, Black Pepper, Arecanut, Tezpatta, Betelvine, Short-staple cotton, Jute, Mesta, Mustard and Rapseed etc. are some of the important cash crops in the State.

Apart from the above the State have achieved signal success in the cultivation of non-traditional crops like Tea, Cashewnut, Oilseeds, Tomato, Mushr oom, Wheat, etc.

Today the State can claim that about 42 per cent area under paddy have been covered with HYV with the average productivity of 2300 kgs/ha. So also is the case with Maize and Wheat where the productivity have increased tremendously with the introduction of HYV from 534 kgs/ha during 1971-72 to 1218 kgs/ha of Maize and from 611 kgs/ha to 1508 kgs/ha of Wheat.

New emphasis is laid on pulses, oilseeds and cash crops. An autonomous board is set up to promote plantation crops, pioneering work done in tea cultivation, with the State having 253 small tea growers at present.

Marketing of agricultural produce facilitated by establishing Secondary Regulated Markets and building rural godowns.