Recently horticulture crop production has shifted from rural confinement to commercial venture to attract young entrepreneurs and economically viable and socially acceptable.In the North Eastern Region, the total area under horticultural cropsis around 822.5 thousand hectare which is around 3.14 percent of the total geographical area of the region and it givestotal production of 6818.4 thousand tonnes. Within the horticulture sector in the NE Region, fruit crops occupy 40.14%, vegetables51.83% and spices 8.03% area.Among fruits, citrus has the largest area under cultivation (34%), followed by banana (24%),pineapple (17%), apple (4%), papaya, mango, litchi, passion fruit (3% each), guava (2%) and kiwi (1%).Among vegetables, potato has the maximum area (27%) under cultivation followed by cabbage (10%), peas (7%), cauliflower (6%), tomato and brinjal (5%), okra and chilli (4%),onion (2%) while other vegetables have 30% of the total area under vegetable cultivation.Efforts have been made to develop an integrated fruit production systems including selection of location specific fruits crops and variety, production of quality seeds and planting materials, high density planting, identification of rootstocks for H.D.P, INM based on soil and leaf nutrient status, crop regulation. Integrated weed management development of horticulture based cropping systems for different agro-climatic region, organic farming for export oriented fruit crops, modern approaches of horticulture technologies like crop diversification, conversion of gray to green land, contract farming, precision farming, water resource management, protected cultivation, integrated weed management, integrated pest and disease management, improved post harvesting management and processing for value addition.
