A Bigger Basket

The northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram are characterised by hilly terrain, lack of infrastructure and fragmented land holdings. With limited income sources, people here tend to pursue age-old agricultural practices, mainly subsistence cultivation and backyard operations, to make ends meet. This leaves rural households cash-poor and vulnerable.

To address the problem, the North East Initiative Development Agency (NEIDA) — an associate entity of the Tata Trusts — began implementing a livelihoods programme in these three states in 2012. The objective: to enhance household earnings from multiple sources.

NEIDA focuses on the value-chain development of crops grown in the region while also encouraging non-farm activities such as piggery and beekeeping. Many of the 26,489 households in the programme area — 102 villages in Arunachal Pradesh, 139 in Mizoram and 128 in Nagaland — have seen their annual incomes go up considerably. Here are some of the success stories from the initiative: