India Northeastern states could play a central role in building the country circular economy by transforming agricultural waste into economic opportunity, according to a new analysis highlighting the region’s untapped ecological and financial potential.
Researchers Kuldeep Singh and N Anandkumar Singh from Central Agricultural University, Imphal, argues that the Northeast should no longer remain on the margins of India’s development story but instead emerge as a “green frontier” for sustainable growth.
India generates more than 500 million tonnes of agricultural residue every year, much of which is either burned, discarded, or left to decompose. The authors say this represents both a major environmental burden and a lost economic opportunity.
The challenge is particularly visible across the eight Northeastern states Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, and Sikkim a region rich in biodiversity and agricultural resources but economically underdeveloped.
The Northeast produces large quantities of bamboo, banana, pineapple, turmeric, ginger, cardamom, and other native crops. Yet massive amounts of associated agricultural residue, including bamboo cuttings, banana stems, crop stubble, fruit peels, and post-harvest waste, remain commercially unused.
Researchers described this as a “structural paradox,” where biologically rich regions generate enormous biomass resources but receive little economic value from them.
According to estimates by the ICAR Research Complex for North Eastern Hill Region, soil degradation and unutilised biomass waste cost the region thousands of crores annually while also contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
The authors argue that adopting a circular economy model where waste materials are reused, recycled, or converted into new products could help address both environmental and economic challenges simultaneously.
Global policy research including studies by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, suggests India’s circular economy transition could generate benefits worth more than Rs 40 lakh crore by 2050 and create nearly 10 million jobs.
The researchers believe the Northeast is uniquely positioned to benefit because of its high biomass availability and strong rural workforce.
Several initiatives are already emerging in the region. Under the Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for Northeast Region, projects in Assam and Tripura are converting banana stem waste into fibre and bio-fertiliser products.
Similarly discussions at the Northeast Bamboo Conclave 2025 in Guwahati focused on using bamboo residue for products such as biochar, activated carbon, energy generation, and industrial boards.
The authors also highlighted the National Bamboo Mission, which offers higher subsidy support for Northeastern and hilly states through a 90:10 Centre-state funding model.
However the analysis cautions that circular economy projects must go beyond efficiency and profitability and ensure that economic gains reach local communities, especially tribal farmers, indigenous groups, women’s self-help collectives, and smallholders who generate much of the biomass.
The authors warned that green industries often concentrate profits at processing and marketing levels while leaving producers with limited benefits.
To avoid this they recommended stronger community ownership structures such as farmer producer organisations, biomass cooperatives, decentralised processing centres, vermicomposting units, biogas plants, and agro-waste-based enterprises owned partly by local communities.
The article also called for a dedicated Circular Agro Economy Policy framework tailored specifically to the ecological and socio economic realities of the Northeast.
Researchers said integrating traditional ecological knowledge with modern green technologies could help the region become a model for sustainable development while strengthening livelihoods and reducing environmental degradation.
“The hills of the Indian Northeast cannot be on the peripheries of our story,” the authors wrote. “They can, and they must, be at its green frontier.”