Applications of Advanced Geospatial Technology for Expansion of Area under Horticultural Crops in North Eastern Region of India

The north-eastern region (NER) of India has unique diversity in agro-climatic conditions coupled with fertile and well-drained soil that makes this region suitable for growing a wide range of fruits, vegetables and spices. Identification and mapping of suitable areas for growing economically important horticultural crops in 24 districts representing eight states of NER were carried out under the CHAMAN programme of Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare, Government of India. Weighted overlay analysis as a means of multi-criteria decision making tools has been adopted for site suitability analysis in the GIS environment. Required crop parameters in terms of physiography, soil, land use and climate were considered for identifying three categories of site suitability viz., highly suitable, moderately suitable and marginally suitable. UAV-based surveys were carried out to complement the field-based ground truth verification. Among the 12 selected crops, pineapple was selected for maximum of four districts and found that 4.6–13.2% of the total geographical areas (TGA) of the selected districts are suitable for growing this crop. Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya selected for turmeric has the highest suitable areas in terms of geographical coverage (131,956 ha). A wide range of orange varieties is grown in NER. Identification of suitable areas for the orange crop was carried out in three districts, viz ., Kamle (Arunachal Pradesh), Tamenglong (Manipur) and Wokha (Nagaland), which delineated 9.18, 3.05 and 18.02% of the TGA of the districts as suitable areas. Kiwi is emerging as a promising crop in the region and suitable areas have been delineated that represents 0.58, 6.20 and 0.03% of TGA in Ukhrul (Manipur), Phek (Nagaland) and East District (Sikkim), respectively. Another newly introduced crop viz ., dragon fruit has been found to bear much promise with 18.44 and 3.47% of the TGA in Serchhip and Aizawl districts of Mizoram are found suitable for growing this crop. Other selected crops like large cardamom for Lower Subansiri (Arunachal Pradesh), Assam Lemon for Nagaon (Assam), potato and arecanut for East Khasi Hills and East Garo Hills districts of Meghalaya are found to have 2–18% of the TGA suitable for growing these crops.