Integrated mission for creation of scientific and comprehensive Soil & Land Resources Information System (SLRIS) for effective implementation of Comprehensive Agriculture Management Programme (CAMP) in agriculture in Meghalaya was commissioned by the state government. The aim was to formulate a scientific initiative to address the un-sustainability in all aspects of Agriculture and to develop very reliable datasets, which will be made available to farmers in the state for their informed decision making.
Successful agriculture depends on technology in various stages of land and water resources management, that maximise the input use efficiency, not only to meet the goal of stabilised & higher yields but also to protect the scarce and precious land resource base, so that inter-generational equity is attained.
In order to achieve this and sustainable development in all sectors of agriculture in the state, it is necessary to analyse and evaluate production constraints. These constraints and indicators of current lower yields and also the suitable technologies needed to maximise production are to be addressed specifically.
Canning S Shabong, Assistant Director of Agriculture (Info & IT), Directorate of Agriculture, Meghalaya says, “Scientific agriculture management in Meghalaya is possible by holistic approach and program planned on very reliable data-bases and datasets to assist planners in better resource allocation and data driven and planned scientific agriculture development based on the researched outcomes and products (maps based on thematic areas and parameters, eg., Soil Maps, Land Use Land Cover Maps, Land Irrigability Maps, Land Capability Maps, Crop Suitability Maps etc).”
To carry out detailed scientific study for the agriculture, horticulture and allied sectors, the department selected three Clusters covering 75,000 ha to assess the natural resources and to develop action plans for land and water resources.
For example, if the objective is to increase production and productivity from the land, land suitability for raising specific crops is accessed scientifically for their suitability for major crops. Analysis in identifying the main limiting factors of a particular crop production enables decision makers to develop a crop management system for increasing the land productivity. Analysis of land for its suitability for different crops is a prerequisite to achieve optimum utilisation of available land resource for agricultural production in a sustainable manner.
Canning adds, “The aim of this approach is to provide more flexible and superior mechanism to the decision makers for selecting the suitable crops based on detailed scientific study. The research work provides information at local level which could be utilised by farmers for selecting the proper cropping pattern to overcome the major pedological constraints.”
In order to meet the above requirement, three different locations, spread in Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills and Garo Hills were researched, utilising the available satellite data, maps and field visits, to identify the contiguous cluster of villages, and finally a total geographical area of about 30,000 ha in each cluster was selected for the project.
The SLRIS project thus presents very scientific and detailed outcomes in a geo spatial environment for enabling planners, extension personnel and farmers to allocate resources and optimise agronomic crop practices based on the land capability and research findings on the ground for best results.
