India, known as the home of spice, produce the most sought- after spices globally, owing to their exquisite aroma, texture, taste and medicinal value. India has the largest domestic market for spice in the world. As a part of this historic spice nation, the North East Region (NER) of India is home to some niche, high quality spice crops. It comprises of eight states, namely, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim, lying between 21º50’ and 29º34’N latitude and 85º34’ and 97º50’ E longitude. The region is known for its inaccessible terrain, fragility, excessive sloping land with rolling topography, rich forest cover, and biotic and abiotic diversity. The North East Hill Region (NEHR) in particular is exclusive in nature due to its peculiarities of location, terrain characteristics. NEHR harbor a rich flora on account of its topography, climate and altitudes. Agro- climatically NER is known for its wide diversity representing temperate, subtropical and tropical areas. The diversity within a single region provides ample scope for growing a large variety of crops (Dubey et al., 2000) and has great potential for development of horticultural crops including spices. Spices are low volume and high export-oriented commodities that has great economic significance in India (Sugasini et al., 2018). These crops have wider adaptability in different cropping systems and can be cultivated as sole crop, inter crop, mixed crop and multistorey cropping systems. These crops are both annual and perennial in nature and the products of these crops are good source of raw materials for ancillary industries. Spices have multi beneficial uses. Apart from flavouring and seasoning, spices are widely used in indigenous medicines, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, aroma therapy, preservatives, beverages, natural colours, perfumes, cosmetics and botanicals as pesticides and thus, play a significant role in the economy of the producing country. These properties are due to diverse array of chemicals synthesized by these spices. NEHR holds immense potential for organic and exotic spices and herbs and presently, the region is the hub of major spices like large cardamom, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, chilli, bay leaf etc. which are in great demand and has tremendous potential. NEHR is home to some niche spice crops like Lakadong turmeric, Bird’s eye chilli, King chilli and Nadia ginger which has high demand for their unique features. NEHR is second to none in quality and sustainability aspect and the major advantage of this regiregion is the organic nature of cultivation practices and low pesticide residue.

1. Doctoral Seminar
Topic:
Spice in NEHR: Status, Challenge and Export Potential
Presented by:
Alemla Imchen
NU:SASRD
2020

2. Source: Spices Board of India

3. Spice in NEHR- STATUS
• the region produces 767 thousand MT of spices from an area
of 241 thousand ha.
• diverse hill ecosystems covering more than two- third of total
geographical area.
• diversity within a single region provides ample scope for
growing a large variety of crops
• holds immense potential for organic and exotic spices &
herbs and presently, is the hub of major spices like large
cardamom, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, chilli, bay leaf
etc..

4. Home to some niche spice crops like Lakadong turmeric, Bird’s eye chilli, King chilli and
Nadia ginger which has high demand for their unique features.

5. Sl
no. Agro- climatic situation Spice crop(s)
A. Existing spices
1. Hills Large cardamom, bay leaf, ginger, turmeric,
chilli etc.
2. Plains Ginger, black pepper, turmeric, chilli etc.
3. Char area/ riverine tracts All seed spices
A. Emerging
1 Plains Vanilla
Source: Bhattacharyya (2009)
Table 1: Spice crops in NE India according to agroclimatic situation

6. Sl. No. STATES SPICES
AREA (‘000 ha) PRODUCTION
(‘000 mt)
1. Arunachal Pradesh 18.44 46.99
2. Assam 104.61 331.01
3. Manipur 11.60 27.91
4. Meghalaya 15.67 75.38
5. Mizoram 28.22 101.49
6. Nagaland 11.34 44.76
7. Sikkim 44.12 105.89
8. Tripura 6.67 33.15
TOTAL 240.67 766.58
Table 2: Area and production of major spices in NER, India.
Source: Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (2019-20 Third Advance Estimates).

7. o Cultivated in almost all the states of NER. Rich in ginger diversity.
o Well-established cash crop in Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram.
o Largest producer of ginger, contributing 40% of total production of ginger in the country (Spices
Board)
o Assam ranks third largest producer in the country after Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
o Varieties: Nadia, China, Naga-shing, Bhora, Varada, Moran, Khasi local, Nagaland local, Kachai
ginger, Thingpui, Bhainse etc.
GINGER (Zingiber officinale Rose.)
Nadia China Naga- shing Varada

8. Sl.
No.
STATES AREA (‘000 Ha) PRODUCTION
(‘000 MT)
PRODUCTIVITY
(MT/Ha)
1 Arunachal Pradesh 7.65 56.58 7.40
2 Assam 18.79 167.39 8.91
3 Manipur 2.40 3.84 1.60
4 Meghalaya 9.94 66.20 6.66
5 Mizoram 8.55 60.13 7.03
6 Nagaland 4.87 48.65 9.99
7 Sikkim 12.30 55.90 4.54
8 Tripura 1.88 15.74 8.39
Source: Horticultural Statistics at a glance 2018, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare
Table 3: State- wise area, production and productivity of Ginger.

9. TURMERIC (Cucurma longa L.)
• Important cash crop, shares about 8.30% of total production in the country.
• Local demand being very limited, roughly, 70-80% of the total production is reportedly
available as marketable surplus from the region.
• Varieties: Lakadong, Megha Turmeric-1, Manipur local, Nagaland local, Sikkim local and
Jorhat local.
• High cucurmin content (6.8- 7.6%)
A field growing Lakadong turmeric in West Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya

10. Sl.
No.
STATES AREA (‘000
Ha)
PRODUCTION
(‘000 MT)
PRODUCTIVITY
(MT/Ha)
1 Arunachal Pradesh 0.80 3.84 4.80
2 Assam 17.11 19.17 1.12
3 Manipur 1.40 15.40 11.00
4 Meghalaya 2.65 16.50 6.23
5 Mizoram 7.74 29.82 3.85
6 Nagaland 0.71 10.19 14.43
7 Sikkim 1.95 5.68 2.91
8 Tripura 1.66 10.08 6.08
Source: Horticultural Statistics at a glance 2018, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare
Table 4: State- wise area, production and productivity of Turmeric.

11. CHILLIES (Capsicum spp.)
• NEHR is recognized as a hot spot for chilli diversity.
• Famous for its Naga King Chilli, Mizo chilli and Cherry pepper.
• Other varieties found successful are K-1, K-2, CO-1, CO-2, MDU-1,
NP-46A and Pusa Jwala.
Naga King chilli Cherry pepper (Dhalle Khorsani) Bird’s eye chilli

12. Sl.
No.
STATES AREA (‘000
Ha)
PRODUCTION
(‘000 MT)
1 Arunachal Pradesh 0.17 0.21
2 Assam 22.36 21.87
3 Manipur 0.56 3.7
4 Meghalaya - -
5 Mizoram - -
6 Nagaland 1.37 1.80
7 Sikkim 1.17 4.47
8 Tripura 2.49 19.49
Table 5: State- wise area & production of Chillies (green)
Sources: Horticultural Statistics at a glance 2018, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare
Assam & Nagaland: Spices Board (2019-20 adv. Est)

13. Large Cardamom (Amomum subulatum Roxb.)
o India is the largest producer of large cardamom with 54% share in world production and Sikkim
contributes up to 88% of India’s production.
o With production of 4778 MT from an area of 23,312 hectares, culminating productivity of 175
kg/ha, large cardamom is the main cash crop of Sikkim.
o Large cardamom farming as an under-storey crop in hill slopes of Sikkim is a unique traditional
production system
o Varieties: Ramsey, Golsey, Seremna, Varlangey and Sawney
o Cultivated in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland & Manipur.

14. Sl.
no
STATES AREA (Ha) PRODUCTION
(Tons)
1. Arunachal Pradesh 10575 1687.1
2. Nagaland 6408 1047.8
3. Sikkim 23312 4779.2
Table 6: State wise area and production of Large Cardamom
Source: Spices Board of India (2019-20 Adv. Est)

15. Source: Spices Board

16. Bay leaf (Cinnamomum tamala Nees & Ebern)
o Commonly known as Tejpat, is a medium sized evergreen cinnamon tree.
o Found in India along the north-western Himalayas, in Sikkim, Assam, Mizoram and Meghalaya.
o Covering a total area of approximately 600 acres, mostly in the entire NE region of India
(Momin, 2018).
o The Tejpat from this region is known to be of
best quality and mostly found growing naturally
in the wild.

17. Spice in NEHR- CHALLENGE
1. Producing quality planting materials
of desired varieties
2. Inadequate infrastructure and difficult
logistics
3. Low productivity
4. Lack of proper market linkages and
branding
Table 7: Constraints in production of large cardamom
Shohe & Roy (2018)

18. 5. Being organic growers, adequate certification needed which entail monetary cost.
6. Inflow of foreign produces from competing countries at cheaper rates.
7. Biotic factors limiting yields like soft rot in ginger, wilt of black pepper, Taphrina in
turmeric, chirkey and foorkey in large cardamom etc.
8. Lack of availability of eco- friendly technologies of production and protection for
organic farming.
9. Lack of agro-based industry in field of spices for value addition.
• Barely one per cent of the region’s agri output is exported, with a lack of
infrastructure for long- term storage.
• The region is de facto organic and needs proper certification and branding to use
this strength in the export scenario.

19. Spice in NEHR- Export Potential
• NE region shares borders with China in
the north, Bangladesh in the south- west,
Bhutan in the north- west and Myanmar in
the east. This makes NE a prospective hub
of international trade and commerce.

20. o According to Ministry of commerce, the country’s exports of organic food products rose by
51 per cent year-on-year to USD 1 billion (Rs 7,078 crore) in 2020-21.
o Organic spices & condiments contribute 5.20% in terms of export value realization
(APEDA).
o NE states has great potential to capture the expanding global organic spice market if
adequate processing & marketing facilities are set up.
o Intrinsic quality of spice unique to this region are amenable to organic by default as per
capita consumption of fertilizers and pesticides is far below that of developed countries and
it is easy for farmers to embrace organic spice farming in its true sense.
Increasing demand of organic food

21. NER could emerge as a major player by exploiting its own strength and
producing sustainable, organic spices in the country.

25. CONCLUSION
 All the northeastern states have distinct inherent advantages and provide immense
economic and trade opportunities to domestic and international players.
 With recognition from national stakeholders such as Spice board, Indian Society for
Spices, NSSP etc. the vision of NER becoming the next hub of organic spice
production in the country could be achieved in the long run.
 More concrete research and extension programmes is to be initiated in the northeastern
region to produce export quality spices and streamlining the production in the light of
national organic standards to help acquire the certification necessary for export.
 Cluster approach in spices production should be encouraged which can help in the easy
formation of FPOs and improve the collection and transportation of spices and generate
exportable quality & quantity.

26. •THANK YOU