**2. Present status of rice production in NEH region**

Rice is the most important cereal crop of the North Eastern Hill Region covering an area of about 998000 hectares producing about 2154000 tonnes of rice with an average productivity of 2.00 t/ha which is below the national average of 2.50 t/ ha (average from 2014 to 2015 to 2018–2019). The rice area of NEH Region to the total area of the country is only about 2.27% with a rice production of 1.96% to the total rice production of the country. The present deficit in rice productivity of NEH Region from the national average is about 19.71% [6].

The average area, production, productivity, requirement, excess/deficit and per cent excess/deficit of rice in NEH states from the year 2014–2015 to 2018–2019 are presented in **Table 2**.

The average rice productivity in the NEH states varies from 1667 kg/ha in Mizoram to 2941 kg/ha in Tripura with a total rice excess of about 1.39 lakh metric tonnes. With the availability of land for rice cultivation becoming a limiting factor, increasing the level of productivity wherever possible by adopting the best available rice production technology to meet the ever increasing demand of rice has now become a great concern for NEH Region.


*Source: [6].*

*Per capita consumption of cereals: 146 kg/person/year (based on RDA of NIN, Hyderabad). Population: As per 2011 census.*

#### **Table 2.**

*Average rice area, production, productivity (2014–2015 to 2018–2019) and quality seed requirement of rice crop at 25% seed replacement rate in NEH states of India.*

The total gross annual domestic income from rice agriculture for the NEH states of India, by taking average yield of rice from 2014-15 to 2018-19, is presented in **Table 3**.

As per **Table 2**, it is observed that rice production is in short from the requirement of cereals in the Mizoram, Meghalaya and Sikkim states of this region. However, when we look NEH states as a whole, the region is self-sufficient in rice considering the shortage is made up from the surplus states. The rice economy of this region is about 1.96% of the whole country and a lesser productivity from the national average productivity of this crop. The requirement here is also calculated on the basis of total cereals required per capita as per [7]. The only cereals which are staple food that consumed twice a daily is rice in this region.
