The North Eastern region of India is generally featured by enormous biodiversity, forest cover and clean
environment. But, in the recent past the region has encountered numerous environment related issues,
mainly due to encroachment, deforestation and indiscriminate jhuming. To contain the degraded
environment a centrally planned and strategic change in farm practices considering natural resource
management, recycling and environmental protection had been increasingly felt essential. The present
study aimed at finding out whether the public agricultural extension system in the region while applying
technologies in the farmers’ fields for transfer and wider dissemination, had been taking into due
consideration the environmental issues or not, and if so, then what was the pattern of shift. A technology
application index (TAI), comprising of six different indicators, was developed for the same purpose and
the required data were extracted from relevant secondary sources. The findings of the study indicate that
there has been a visible shift in thrust in agricultural technology application from field crop production
oriented technologies to resource management and horticultural production technologies. Although a
shift in relative thrust has been observed in technologies related to small scale enterprises, some more
emphasis is required to integrate the small scale enterprises to farm based livelihood options, exploiting
natural resources in a sustainable manner and following scientific soil health management practices.