AGRICULTURE AND ITS ALLIED SECTORS 

Agriculture

The key to the development of sedentary human civilization was the advent of agriculture, which allowed for the production of surplus food through husbandry of domesticated animals. Agriculture has a long history that extends back thousands of years, and varied climates, civilizations, and technological advancements have tremendously influenced and characterised it. All farming, however, typically depends on methods to increase and preserve the lands that are ideal for breeding domesticated animals. This definition covers forestry, horticulture, all terms related to growing plants, animal husbandry, and arable farming or agronomy.

The majority people of Manipur are considered to be employed in the agricultural and related industries. By making a significant contribution to the State Domestic Product and employing around 52.81% of all State workers, it plays a crucial role in the state economy.  The output of food grains, excluding pulses, increased by 27% to 496.11 ('000 tonnes) in 2020-21 from 389.89 ('000 tonnes) in 2019–20. In the state, the estimated need for food grains for human use in the year 2020-21, excluding cattle, poultry, seed, wastage, etc., would be in the range of 671.28 (000 tonnes). The production of rice in Manipur for the year 2020-21 was estimated at 4.91 lakh tonnes as against 3.85 lakh tonnes in 2019-20.

Area under paddy cultivation

The agricultural practices in Manipur are broadly of two distinct types, viz., (i) settled (permanent) farming practiced in the plains, valleys, foothills and terraced slopes and (ii) shifting cultivation (Jhum) practiced on the hill slopes.

Table 1: Type of agricultural practices in Manipur for the year 2014-15

Source: Statistical Year Book Manipur 2016

Crops in Manipur can be largely categorized into cereals, pulses, oilseeds and other commercial crops. The main cereal crops in the state are rice and maize while arhar, urad, cowpea, pea, broad beans etc, are the pulses generally grown by the people. Mustard, groundnut, and soybean are the major oilseeds of Manipur. There are different varieties of rice grown in the state and a number of high yielding varieties are also introduced. Fruits like pineapple, lime/lemon, banana, orange, papaya, plum are also found in plenty while cauliflower, cabbage, tomato, peas, carrot, pumpkin are the commonly found vegetables of the state.

Fig 1:  Estimated area, yield of rice in manipur for the year 2012-2021

Table 2: Estimated area, yield and production of Rice for the year 2012-2021

P-Provisional

Source: Economic survey, Manipur 2021-22

According to estimates, Manipur produced 4.91 lakh tonnes of rice in 2020-21 but 3.85 lakh tonnes were produced in 2019-20. With 81.85 thousand tonnes, Thoubal District produces the most rice among the districts, followed by Senapati with 77.54 thousand tonnes. Ukhrul District had the lowest amount of production with only 17.62 thousand tonnes in the year 2020-21.

Table 3: District wise rice production for 2021-2022

   P-Provisional

Source: Economic survey, Manipur 2021-22

For the agricultural year 2020-21, the estimated area, average yield, and production for maize production were 27.9Sq.km, 1944.79 kgs. per hectare, and 5.43 thousand tonnes, respectively.

Table 4: District wise maize production for 2019-20

P-Provisional

Source: Economic survey, Manipur 2021- 2022

According to the Crop Estimation Survey conducted by the Directorate of Economics & Statistics, the estimated area under HYVs and Improved Varieties (IVs) of paddy in 2020-21 is less than the previous year. The total area under HYVs and IVs of paddy constitutes about 58.63 % of the total area under paddy in 2020-21 as against 63.21 % in 2019-20.

The adoption of HYVs of paddy in the hill districts is perhaps due to surface configuration of the hill areas which is continued to be negligible while that of IVs is quite encouraging. The proportion in the hill areas for the HYVs and IVs was 22.58 % in 2020-21 as against 26.89 % in 2019-20. The percentage of areas under local varieties, HYVs and IVs of paddy to total area under paddy during 2020-21 is shown in the table below.

Table 5: Percentage of area under HYVs, IVs and local varieties of paddy to total area under

paddy

P-Provisional

Source: Directorate of Economics & Statistics, Govt. of Manipur,

Economic survey, Manipur 2021- 2022

The irregular and erratic behaviour of monsoon accompanied by inadequate irrigation infrastructure resulted in severe fluctuations in agricultural production. A large part of the crop area is still un-irrigated. But with irrigation potential being slowly created under major, medium and minor irrigation projects, double cropping is being practiced more successfully in some pockets of the valley districts in Manipur.  Out of the estimated area of 178.5 thousand hectares, 50.76 thousand hectares, were found to be irrigated which accounted for 30.11 % to the total area under paddy during 2020-21. The district-wise estimated irrigated and unirrigated area under cereal crops in 2020-21 is given in Table No. 3.1.6.

Table 6:  District-wise estimates of irrigated area under cereal crops during the agricultural year 2020-21 in Manipur  (Area in ‘000 hect.)

-Nil

Source: Directorate of Economics & Statistics, Govt. of Manipur

Table No. 7: Cropping Pattern of Manipur (Area in '000 hect.)

-Nil

Note: Underlined figures are percentage shares to the respective total 

Source: Directorate of Economics & Statistics, Manipur

Climate change impact on agriculture and its allied sector

The agricultural sector is likewise affected by the trend in shifting weather conditions. The key factor that influences agricultural production is rainfall, which has been increasingly irregular in recent years. Droughts, floods, tropical cyclones, and other climatic variability have a detrimental effect on agricultural output and farmers' means of subsistence. Climate change may have its detrimental effects, but it is also believed that rising atmospheric CO2 levels may have some favourable effects on crop output. Most parts of Manipur are indicated to have experienced an increase in both minimum & maximum temperature of ≥ 1.75°C and ≥ 1.5°C respectively in the last 100 years. The average relative humidity of the state is also observed to have increased during the last decades (1968-2011) i.e. 68% in 1968 to 84% in 2011. These changing trends of climate in the state could link in the decrease in crop production because rice yield can be attributed to the increase in temperature and CO₂ concentration coupled with the change in rainfall pattern for the region.  In addition to these, reports of specific agricultural activities during the past few decades, such as changes in crop yield, phenology and morphology, moisture stress, and declining soil productivity, may be interpreted as a result of climate change. But in order to mitigate these changes, paddy farming has expanded, yields have improved, and as a result, paddy productivity in the state has increased. But despite the state's population trending upward, it has yet to reach the necessary level because production is still much below what is needed for the state's population. Since 57.04% of the population works in agriculture and allied industries, combating the effects of climate change on agriculture has grown to be a serious issue. It is high time to give the agricultural sector more attention, as the bulk of the population relies on agriculture for a living and it only makes up 1.04% of the state's total land area.