Arunachal Pradesh - Region Profile

Arunachal Pradesh is located in northeast India and borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south, sharing international borders with Bhutan in the west, Myanmar in the east and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the north. Arunachal Pradesh is located between 26.28° N and 29.30° N latitude and 91.20° E and 97.30° E longitude. It has an area of 8.3 million hectares and a population of 1.3 million. Agriculture primarily drives the economy. Arunachal Pradesh has close to 61,000 square km of forests, and forest products are the next most significant sector of the economy. Chief crops grown here are rice, maize, millet, wheat, pulses, sugarcane, ginger, and oilseeds. The population growth as observed between the years 2001- 2011 was 25.9%. Table 1 illustrates the current area, productivity and production statistics of major crops in Arunachal Pradesh.



Nutrient consumption in Arunachal Pradesh in the past decade is given in Fig. 2. Total fertilizer nutrient consumption in the state of Arunachal Pradesh decreased from 0.68 thousand MT during 2011-12 to 0.57 thousand MT during 2012-13. The nutrient consumption ratio for N, P₂O₅ and K₂O was 4.0:3.8:1 in the year 2010-11. The total consumption of plant nutrients per unit of gross cropped area was 2.4 kg/ha in 2011-12 which reduced to 2.1 kg/ha in 2012-13. Using the area and production of major crops, the total nutrient (N, P₂O₅ and K₂O) removal by each crop was calculated and a nutrient balance sheet was prepared (table 2).

Table 1: Latest Crop Production Statistics of Arunachal Pradesh -2012-13

Parameters	Rice	Wheat	Maize	Total Cereals	Total Pulses	Total Foodgrains	Total Oilseeds	Sugarcane
Area	126.1	2.9	47.5	199.2	9.5	208.6	32.3	1.5
Production	263	4.4	68.2	359	10.6	369.6	29.3	30.2
Productivity	2086	1498	1436	1802	1122	1772	909	19707

Area ('000 ha); Production ('000 tonnes); Productivity (kg/ha); # Production and Productivity in 1000 bales of 180 kg each

Table 2: Nutrient balance sheet for major crops of Arunachal Pradesh (2012-13)

Crop	Area (in '000 ha)	Production (in '000 tonnes)	Nutrient Removal (kg/tonne)			Total Removal (tonnes)
			N	P2O5	K2O	N	P2O5	K2O
Rice	126.1	263	20.1	11.2	30	5286.3	2945.6	7890
Wheat	2.9	4.4	24.4	8.6	32.8	107.36	37.84	144.32
Maize	47.5	68.2	8.2	3.1	15.5	559.24	211.42	1057.1
Total Pulses	9.5	10.6	40	5	20	424	53	212
Total Oilseeds	32.3	29.3	54	14	46	1582.2	410.2	1347.8
Sugarcane	1.5	30.2	1.7	0.2	2	51.34	6.04	60.4
		Total removal by major crops				8010.44	3664.1	10711.62
		Total fertilizer consumption in Arunachal Pradesh				450	30	90
		Consumption * Efficiency factor				180	9	63
		Balance/Deficit				-7830.44	-3655.1	-10648.6

Efficiency of N=40%; P2O5= 30%; and K2O=70%

*Crop production and fertilizer use data are retrieved from Fertiliser Statistics, 2013-14, The Fertiliser Association of India, New Delhi