Sriram ananthanarayanan examines how the cycle of jhum cultivation is getting adversely affected, causing immense hardship to the people dependent on it. In some regions of india, in the shifting cultivation, there is the use of agriculture which will be full of the slashandburn agriculture, migratory primitive agriculture, nomadic agriculture, hoe and burn, forest field rotation. This is the reason it is named as shifting cultivation. Jhum cultivation which is popularly known as shifting cultivation is one of the oldest types of cultivation practices of india and is practiced majorly in the northeastern states of india. This file was created by scanning the printed publication. In 2003, 62 hhs opened 65 plots for shifting cultivation, which covered 141. Faced with declining land and resources on one hand, and an. While this farming method has been widely argued as environmentally destructive and.
Jhum cultivation is woven into the traditions and culture of the nagas with major land use is under jhum. Jhum cultivation under conflict in the northeast shifting cultivation in the northeast, called jhum, is under stress because of conflicts and industrialisation. The objective is to estimate, the total area under jhum cultivation in. At present, net area sown in mizoram state is only 5. Mar 25, 2014 a short film about variant of jhum cultivation practiced in nagaland which is sustainable and does not involve tree felling. This primitive form of agriculture, according to him, resulted in serious environmental problems. Changes in the extent of shifting cultivation in india 2000 2010. Shifting cultivation known as jhumming is one of the most ancient system of farming believed to have originated in the neolithic period during 7000 b.
Developing an alternative to shifting cultivation in northeast india. Designing a protected area network for conservation. Jhum or shifting cultivation is still prevalent in many of the mountain communities in northeast india. Crops are raised for a few seasons then the area is abandoned once in 2 or 3. Upland rice is the main crop grown in mixture with maize, foxtail, finger millet, beans, cassava, yam, banana, sweet potato, ginger, chillies, vegetables, etc. Jhum cultivation practices of the bangnis nishis of arunachal. The practice involves clearing vegetative cover on landslopes of hills, drying and burning it before onset of monsoon and cropping on it thereafter. The pdf file you selected should load here if your web browser has a pdf reader plugin installed for example, a recent version of adobe acrobat reader if you would like more information about how to print, save, and work with pdfs, highwire press provides a helpful frequently asked questions about pdfs alternatively, you can download the pdf file directly to your computer, from where it. The major crops grown on this land are dry paddy, maize etc. Pineapple, citrus, jackfruit and some timber planted on mid slopes as pure as well as intercrop with pulsesoilseeds and other crops 3.
The practice of shifting cultivation, therefore, could increase forest cover through the regenerating fallows. Jhum shifting cultivation is a primitive practice of cultivation in states of north eastern hill region of india and people involved in such cultivation are called jhumia. This cultivation has a particular pattern that has to be followed according to the cycle or the period of jhum cultivation. Pdf practices of shifting cultivation and its implications in. Shifting cultivation, variously termed as rotational bush, fallow agriculture, swidden cultivation or slash and burn cultivation, is an age old practice of cultivation in northeast india, which is still a predominant farming system. Dec 10, 2017 this is the reason it is named as shifting cultivation. The diversity and dynamics of shifting cultivation world. Jhum cultivation under sharper scrutiny jhum, a traditional form of shifting cultivation common in the northeast, was the focus of a recent international meeting in guwahati. Shifting or jhum cultivation, is a predominant form of farming in north east india, practiced since time immemorial.
Manipur is a hilly region with large portion of its geographical areas being covered by forests. In fact, jhum cultivators who took to plough cultivation often suffered, since their fields did not produce good yields. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. A recent study based on satellite data carried out by the assarn remote sensing application center astc council, 1996 shows that in the karbi anglong district of assam the area under current jhum has increased from 583 ha 1. Traditionally all the tribes in the state practice. Jhum or podu or shifting or slash and burn cultivation is one of the primitive practise of agriculture systems. Jhum cultivation by the tribal people in northeast india is considered as sustainable land use practice for ensuring livelihood security. Calibration approach for estimation of area under jhum. An empirical study of shifting cultivation in kombo jinyo. It is a sedentary form of wet rice oryza sativa cultivation and is a complementary system to jhum. Jun 27, 2008 jhum cultivation under conflict in the northeast shifting cultivation in the northeast, called jhum, is under stress because of conflicts and industrialisation. Climate smart agricultural practices for food security in. But dilution of the original practice has impacted the ecosystem in some areas. Sustainability of jhum cultivation 183 weed competition is less.
Jhum cultivation or shifting swidden cultivation is prevalent since ancient time. This paper examines economic implications of shifting cultivation in. Jhum cultivation involves slashing down of trees and bushes over the forest areas, drying and burning, sowing of seeds of host of crops including paddy by using stick, dibbler or by hand before the onset of monsoon. Crops are raised for a few seasons then the area is. Jhum or slash and burn cultivation, is a form of cultivation carried out on the slopes of a hill. Pdf jhumshifting cultivation is traditional landuse practice of north east region of india, is an ecologically and economically viable system of. Timber crops as pure crops at the upper most crest upper slopes 2. While it is generally contested as a destructive method of farming, it is also argued that the system lends. The challenge is not only in jhum areas but also in traditionally non jhum areas which is equally facing huge land degradation and soil erosion due to rising land pressure owing to phenomenal population growth in the last. Jhum cultivation practices of the bangnis nishis of arunachal pradesh. Jhum cultivation practices of the bangnis nishis of arunachal pradesh vishal gupta divisional forest officer, seppa forest division, seppa 790 102, arunachal pradesh email.
Sustainable land and ecosystem management in shifting. Sustainability of jhum cultivation as perceived by the. Land cultivation in india is having its distinct feature in different regions of the country. The shifting cultivation is briefly known as agriculture in the cultivate manner that is in the form of the jhum. Jhum cultivation, which is also known as shifting cultivation, is the primitive form of soil utilization. The farmers then move onto the other land to repeat the same process there and they keep on shifting it. Shifting cultivation in the northeast hill region is a cyclical system of agriculture over a compact area characterized by manual clearing of vegetation mainly. This is done by clearing a patch of land for cultivation. This is very essential for the fertility of the land. The ever shortened jhum cycle in the region has impacted both the forest. The structure of jhum traditional shifting cultivation. This type of cultivation is mainly practised in much of the worlds humid lowlatitude, or climate regions, which have relatively high te. Inspite of its minor variation, these cultivation processes are classified into two distinct patternsa settled farming on the permanent and developed land in the plains and valley areas and b tribal agricultural practices, popularly known as.
Hence, the study was conducted in gomati district, tripura state of northeast india during 2012 with 140 respondents aiming to study the sustainability of jhum practiced by tribal people and their. The agricultural practices of shifting cultivators should be understood as adaptations to ecological, socioeconomic, and structural constraints. G g g y 1, the total area under jhum cultivation in the state. Any land use change suggested for transformation of shifting cultivation, therefore. The topography of the region apart from fertility of the soil. Text errors identified by the software have been corrected. Jhum cultivation practices of the bangnis nishis of.
Shifting cultivation, livelihood and food security. Pdf sustainability of jhum cultivation as perceived by the tribal. Initially, the vegetation or the forest on the land is cleared where the. May 30, 2012 jhum cultivation and its impact on ecology need for viable alternatives ceety khongsai jhum cultivation seen in this breathtaking landscape of manipur pix bullu raj. Indigenous system of paddy cultivation in terrace and jhum. Bandarban hill district is of great importance for growing various crops, which are different from the plains. In 2004, 74 hhs opened 75 plots for shifting cultivation, with an aggregate area of 179. Another reason is that before sowing they mix the seeds with cow urine and dry it in shade to reduce incidence of diseases and pests. The structure of jhum traditional shifting cultivation system. While it is generally contested as a destructive method of farming, it is also argued that the system lends itself as much more than just a farming practice. Rice, corn maize, millet, and buckwheat are among the chief crops grown by that method. The period of cultivation is usually terminated when the soil shows signs of exhaustion or, more commonly, when the field is overrun by weeds.
Jhum cultivation and its impact on ecology need for viable alternatives ceety khongsai jhum cultivation seen in this breathtaking landscape of manipur pix bullu raj. Meanwhile, about 54% people, living in the rural areas, are engaged in practicing it. The shifting cultivation in arunachal pradesh is dynamic in nature and is known as jhum. Shifting cultivation fallows must be legally perceived and categorized as regenerating fallows, which may, if given sufficient time, regenerate into secondary forests. The practice involves clearing vegetativeforest cover on landslopes of hills, drying and burning it before onset of monsoon and cropping on it thereafter. It is done wherever the terrain permits, on flat lands between hill slopes. They slash and burn the vegetation on hills and go for jhum cultivation without adopting any conservation measures which contributes to soil and. Like jhum, valley agriculture is practised through out the hill terrain, both at low and high elevations of northeastern region of india. The british effort to settle jhum cultivators was not very successful because of the following reasons. Approach paper on new land use policy projectmanipur 2014 7 cultivation but still much more needs to be done. Shifting cultivation is the major occupation and the main source of income of the marginal farmers jhumias in mizoram. Alder based farming system a traditional farming practices. Stracey listed a number of problems caused by slashandburn shifting cultivation or jhum as commonly practised by indigenous tribes in north east india.
Strategies for improvement in jhum cultivation kiran. Nov 07, 2017 jhum or podu or shifting or slash and burn cultivation is one of the primitive practise of agriculture systems. Pdf jhum cultivation and its consequences on forest and. Settled plough cultivation is not easy in areas where water is scarce and the soil is dry. It plays an important role for providing livelihood and food security to many people in hilly areas where the other opportunity of cultivation is not feasible. Farmers practice traditional jhum culture for their livelihood. Area under jhum cultivation significantly reduced in. For jhumias jhum cultivators the importance of shifting cultivation goes beyond mere economic concerns. Remarks1 we make the frame of only those households in villages who are practicing jhum cultivation to avoid zero information. The distributional pattern of shifting cultivation in southeast asia has been show in figure 5. Shifting cultivation or jhum cultivation in nagaland is a complex p and there are variations from district to district and tribe to tribe. Developmental activities like roads and bridges enable destructive human incursion 27 38.
The downed vegetation, or slash, is then left to dry, usually right before the rainiest part of the year. Prospect or threat to climate article pdf available september 2015 with 205 reads how we measure reads. Forest being cleared inhabited with wild bananas in andaman and nicobar islands 21 27 37. Slashandburn agriculture, also called firefallow cultivation, is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. Designing a protected area network for conservation planning in jhum landscapes of garo hills, megbalaya. Jhum cultivation practices of the galo of arunachal pradesh. Loss of forest cover and land degradation in jhum in india. The objective is to estimate, the total area under jhum cultivation in the state. Livelihood status of hill dwellers in bandarban, bangladesh abstract. A short film about variant of jhum cultivation practiced in nagaland which is sustainable and does not involve tree felling.
Jan 20, 2014 jhum or shifting cultivation is still prevalent in many of the mountain communities in northeast india. Jhum or jhoom cultivation is also called as shifting cultivation or cultivation or slash and burn cultivation. Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned and allowed to revert to their natural vegetation while the cultivator moves on to another plot. Traditionally in nagaland, jhum cultivation was productive and sustainable. Naga farmers had been practicing jhum and terrace form of paddy cultivation. In line with the centres stress on conventional methods of cultivation, the state with a 72 per cent forest cover had been able to reduce the total area under jhum cultivation from 1,10,000. Jhum agriculture involves an intricate combination of land and labour management or gainful employment intertwined with strong cultural linkages. It is known as jhum in northeasten india, podu in odisha, andhra pradesh and some southern indian states. Towards settled cultivation from traditional jhuma case. Shifting cultivation is the oldest system of cultivation of crops and the first step in transition from food gatherer to food producer. Sriram ananthanarayanan examines how the cycle of jhum cultivation is getting adversely affected, causing immense hardship to. The research reveals that jhum is the component of traditional agroecosystem encompassing diverse set of knowledge and practices of.
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