International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research

Authors
Unmilan Kalita

Abstract
Indian economy has been driven by agriculture since time immemorial. It currently employs more than 50% of its total workforce in agriculture while contributing around 17-18% in the country’s gross domestic product. Even though the trend percentage of workforce is declining at present, agriculture will undoubtedly remain the economy’s backbone for a long time to come. As such, it becomes necessary to support and strengthen the backbone, and evade contingencies of climate change and land-use change, so that an increased horticultural productivity is sustained with no excess pressure on the environment. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) was introduced to propagate the idea of sustainable agricultural practices in traditional farming. In this context, North-East India has immense potential but has been sitting on the back burner for a number of causes. The present paper envisages to discuss the status of NMSA in terms of its implementation with respect to its objectives of horticultural insurance and credit support vis-à-vis the eight North-Eastern states. Observations indicate a number of shortfalls in insurance coverage for farmers and lack of credit support, which if addressed could absolutely bring a radical change in the region’s agricultural scenario.