ENVIS Bulletin Vol 13(1) : Himalayan Ecology UNDERUTILIZED HORTICULTURAL CROPS IN NORTH EASTERN REGION N. Rai, B.S. Asati, R.K. Patel, K.K. Patel and D.S. Yadav Division of Horticulture, ICAR Research Complex for North Eastern Hill Region Umiam-793103, Meghalaya INTRODUCTION The crops, which are neither grown commercially on large scale nor traded widely, may be termed as underutilized horticultural crops (UUHC). These crops are cultivated, traded and consumed locally. The popularity of these horticultural crops varies from crop to crop and locality to locality, which however, can be enhanced to a greater extent through publicity. The underutilized horticultural crops (UUHC) have many merits. These are easier to grow and hardy in nature, producing a crop even under adverse soil and climatic conditions. Most of them are very rich sources of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Since, the underutilized horticultural crops have a long history of consumption, the local people are aware about their nutritional and medicinal properties. Moreover, these are cheap and readily available. The horticultural crops are contributing 3.14% of the total geographical area of the region. The region is one of the richest reservoirs of genetic variability and diversity of different horticultural crops, which exist in plant types, morphological and physiological variations, reactions to diseases and pests, adaptability and distribution. SCOPE OF UNDERUTILIZED HORTICULTURAL CROPS • In North Eastern region, there are wastelands of different kinds viz. sand dunes, ravines, acidic soils, marshy and marginal lands, which are unfit for supporting cultivation of high input demanding crops. Such lands can easily be put to use for growing low input crops in order to diversify the present day agriculture, which is so inevitable in view of the increasing population pressure and fast depletion of natural resources as well as the growing and changing human needs in the region. • The average productivity of the horticultural crops is just half of the national productivity. As grain farming is proving un-remunerative in the undulating topography of hilly tracts, which is deprived of irrigation facilities, despite government of India’s has been putting forth endeavuors to uplift the region, vast potential remains unexploited. It becomes possible to exploit the untapped potential of the region through location specific horticulture and subsequently expanding the area under horticultural crops. Production of UUHC can also be increased through adoption of scientific technologies. • Apart from nutritive value, underutilized horticultural crops are particularly more important for medicinal properties and famous for the retentive value in Ayurvedic medicine. Mostly people are familiar with the medicinal properties of locally grown horticultural crops. DIVERSIFICATION OF UNDERUTILIZED HORTICULTURAL CROPS: North eastern region, being rich in plant diversity, has a very large number of non traditional or underutilized horticultural crops. Different agro-ecological/phyto-geographical regions hold rich diversity in both the cultivated and the wild horticultural crops. In view of its importance from the context of diversity conservation the region is one of the 18 hot-spots of the world. Diversity among UUHC in the region is discussed below: Fruit Crops: The North-East India is rich in fruit diversity and contains more than one-third of the country’s total diversity. Based on the areas and crops and their distribution, under utilized fruit crops of the region are given in Table 1. ENVIS Bulletin: Himalayan Ecology, Vol. 13(1), 2005 ENVIS Centre, GBPIHED PDF processed with CutePDF evaluation edition www.CutePDF.com PDF processed with CutePDF evaluation edition www.CutePDF.com