Our Correspondent
Kohima | April 3
The Nagaland Economic Survey 2015-16 brought out by the State’s department of economics & statistics and tabled in the recent state assembly session here stated that during 2014-15, the total quantity of fertilizers consumed in the state is 2604.08 MT, with 1324.16 MT of Nitrogen, 796.08 MT of Phosphate and 483.84 MT of Potassium.
“Intensive agriculture requires plant protection measures to avoid loss of crops due to pest and diseases,” the Survey stated, adding that the annual loss incurred in the state due to pests, diseases and weeds are as high as 5-32 per cent of crop production depending on the severity of the pests incidence.
10.72 MT of solid particles and 3428 litres of liquid pesticides were consumed during 2014-15.
Land Utilization
As per the land utilization statistics, the total reporting area of the state in 2014-15 is recorded at 16.52 lakh ha, which is 0.006 lakh ha more than the previous year. Out of the total reporting area, area under forest constitutes 8.63 lakh ha, net area sown 3.84 lakh ha, other uncultivable land excluding fallow land 1.61 lakh ha, land not available for cultivation 0.95 lakh ha, and the area under fallow land constitutes 1.49 lakh ha.
The Survey stated that total cropped area in the state recorded 50.01 lakh ha in 2014-15 from 49.93 lakh ha in 2013-14, thus, the total cropped area in the state increased by 0.15 per cent or 0.01 lakhs ha in absolute figure over the previous year.
The area sown more than once recorded 1.16 lakh ha in 2014-15 as compared to 1.19 lakh hectare in 2013-14, which is a percentage decrease of 2.21 per cent, while net area sown recorded 3.84 lakh ha in 2014-15, which is 0.03 lakh ha or 0.89 per cent more than 2013-14 (3.80 lakh ha). Thus, the percentage of area sown more than once to the net area sown recorded 30.28 per cent in 2014-15 as compared to 31.21 per cent in 2013-14. The percentage of net area sown to total cropped area was 76.76 per cent in 2014-15 compared to 76.20 per cent in 2013-14.
