Shifting Cultivation in North-East India: Growth and Progress

The agricultural production systems in the hilly areas differ from the plough cultivation in the plain areas. The term shifting cultivation refers to a certain method of farming. In this particular method, land is widely used to cultivate crops for a few years, then allowed to lie fallow for several years after which it is reused again. Shifting cultivation is said to be one of the unsustainable land uses contributing significantly to environmental degradation. Across South and Southeast Asia, a large number of people depend fully or partly on shifting cultivation for their livelihood and food security. In the Himalayan region of the north east, the agricultural practice of shifting cultivation also known as jhum cultivation or rotational agro-forestry, prevalent since prehistoric times, is being carried out by traditional tribal societies even today. The objective of this paper is to study the growth and progress of shifting cultivations in North-Eastern India.


Introduction
The word Jhummay be the most misunderstood term among the environmentalists, scientists and others concerned with natural resource management (Kalita & Bhowmick, 2011). The term shifting cultivation refers to a certain method of farming. In this particular method, land is widely used to cultivate crops for a few years, then allowed to lie fallow for several years after which it is reused again. The practice is characterised by a cultivation phase, which involves clearing of primary or secondary forest and crop cultivation for one to three years, followed by a fallow phase, during which cultivation is suspended to allow recovery of soil fertility (Karthik et al., 2009).
Shifting cultivation is said to be one of the unsustainable land uses contributing significantly to environmental degradation. Clearing forests for shifting cultivation can contribute to climate change, biodiversity loss, reduced timber supply, flooding, siltation, soil degradation and change of forest vegetation from primary to secondary and eventually to grassland. Slashing and subsequent burning are preconditions for Jhum cultivation. Slashing of vegetation for cultivation is done during January-February.
Shifting cultivators may possess a highly developed knowledge and understanding of their local environments and of the crops and native plant species they exploit. Shifting cultivation is a land-use practice that reflects indigenous knowledge accumulated through centuries of trial and error, an intricate balance between product harvest and ecological resilience, and an impressive degree of agro-diversity.

Shifting Cultivation in India
In India, shifting cultivation is still practised in the hill areas of North-Eastern Region, Sikkim, Bihar, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra. But among all these states, such practices are still prevalent in the hill areas of North-Eastern states, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. The people of eastern and north-eastern region practice shifting cultivation on hill slopes. Shifting cultivation is an age-old practice, particularly being practised in the Eastern Ghats. Orissa accounts for the largest area under shifting cultivation in India. Shifting cultivation is locally known as the podu cultivation. Crocklin (1961) described shifting cultivation as use of human labour, use of stick or hoe, short periods of soil occupancy alternating with long fallow periods. It served as the economic mainstay. The tribals were totally dependent on it for survival. It  In the Himalayan region of the north east, the agricultural practice of shifting cultivation also known as jhum cultivation or rotational agro-forestry, prevalent since prehistoric times, is being carried out by traditional tribal societies even today (India Today, 2006). It is being practised on the Revenue, Reserve Forests and protected forests.
Although shifting cultivation is a non-viable resource-utilization practice, tribals are still clinging to this primitive practice to sustain themselves and their families mainly due to non-availability of timely employment avenues. The mountain eco-systems of these regions with shifting cultivation practice have to be made ecologically sustainable.
Formulating an eco-development plan for the region for environmental sustainability, could consider completely replacing agricultural practice with farm forestry. Agricultural practices are at the cost of loss of biodiversity resources; estimates indicate that one unit of energy in agronomic production costs loss of greater energy from the forests (Ranjan & Upadhyay, 1999 (Dash, 2006).

Shfting Cultivation in North-East India
Jhum cultivation is a local name for slash and burn agriculture practiced by the tribal groups in the northeastern states of India like Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland and also in the districts of Bangladesh like Khagrachari and Sylhet. This system involves clearing a piece of land by setting fire or clear felling and using the area for growing crops of agricultural importance such as upland rice, vegetables or fruits.
Shifting cultivation is the oldest system of cultivation of crops and the first step in transition from food gatherer to food producer. In India the total area under jhum cultivation is 0.94 m ha whereas North East India itself accounts for 80% of the jhum area (0.76 m ha). It affects the forest cover adversely by clearing of the hill slope through slash and burning of vegetation. In the north eastern region, the Jhum cycle is reduced to 2-5 years from 20-30 years, a jhum cycle of 15-20 years is sustainable.     In 1984, the Central Forestry Commission estimated that 6.7 million ha of cultivable area was affected by jhum in India. According to the Task Force on Shifting Cultivation, as many as 70,000 families in Manipur practiced jhum cultivation bringing 90,000 ha under this method of cultivation annually. The continuance of jhum in the state is closely linked to ecological, socio-economic, cultural and land tenure systems of tribal communities. Since the community owns the lands the village council or elders divide the jhum land among families for their subsistence on a rotational basis. In the hilly areas of Manipur, shifting cultivation is widely practiced, with settled terrace farming in foothill or low slope areas, above the adjacent rivers and streams.
Depending on the slope, wet broadcast on bunded fields or dry broadcast on unbunded fields is practised. In the plains wet paddy rice cultivation is prevalent. Tra- Use Policy with an objective to put an end to the practice of jhuming by providing alternative land based permanent occupation and stable income to the families practicing jhuming (jhumias) in rural areas thereby raising their standard of living. Assistance is provided for various trades or occupation for a period of three years. The programme is operated on yearly basis (Garbyal, 1999).

(c) Nagaland
The north-eastern state of Nagaland is located at the confluence of the Indo-Chi-fauna. Shifting cultivation is the main form of agriculture, most suitable for the state's climate conditions and steep terrain. In recent years, however, the duration of jhum cycles have shortened. This has meant that there is little time for restoring soil fertility and yields are declining over time. Families that were once self-sufficient in food grains are now not able to produce enough even for a few months of the year.
Nagaland faces a major challenge in adapting land use and production systems to meet rising populations and changing lifestyles, while also maintaining its ecological sustainability. In partnership with the Government of Nagaland, the UNDP project focuses on reducing land degradation resulting from shifting cultivation practices. About felling, drying and burning of the jhum field followed by sowing, inter-cultural operation, harvest, and fallowin. The UNDP programme in partnership with the government of Nagaland, aims to address land degradation in shifting cultivation locations.

(d) Meghalaya
Shifting cultivation has traditionally been practised in Meghalaya for generations. This has created a mosaic of forested and jhummed areas, resulting in disrupted connectivity of forests, fragmenting populations of wild animals and increasing inci-dents of human-animal conflicts. The problem is most acute in the Garo Hills; three quarters of the state's total number of households involved in shifting cultivation, belong to the Garo hills. As a result of jhum cultivation which involves slashing and burning of forests, rich wild habitats have been fragmented, affecting all kinds of wildlife.
Jhum is a type of mixed cropping system practiced by Khasis, Garos and alike.
Some reports indicated a marked decrease in the number of families practising jhum cultivation in Meghalaya, but it was difficult to assess its success due to lack of reliable data. The implementation of the schemes to control jhum cultivation should not be a water-tight compartment, but has an integrated approach. Barring the decrease in the jhuming cycle from 20-30 years to 3-6 years, this method of cultivation is arguably the one that is most suited in the hills of Meghalaya and perhaps in the whole of north eastern region. The present allocation of funds of Rs. 10,000 per hectare for treatable areas was not sufficient for the required treatment because of the terrain and rainfall conditions in Meghalaya.

(e) Tripura
The Tripura government has targeted to achieve paddy cultivation in more than Shifting cultivation has been identified as one of the main human impacts influencing biodiversity in Tripura. Over the last few years a new class of shifting cultivators has emerged that has adopted non-traditional forms of jhooming, which have been responsible for the loss of biological diversity in the state (Gupta, 2000).  The Reang tribe in Tripura, which practised shifting cultivation and still does to an extent, faces serious problems with the state government implementing measures to turn them into settled cultivators. Government programmes have widened social dis-parities among the Reangs and brought in alternatives that cannot sustain them round the year. It argues that shifting cultivation, which aims at self-sufficiency, is still remunerative compared to other forms of cultivation if traditional forest and land rights are restored to the tribal people (Sengupta, 2013).
Mostly the Reang tribe of Tripura practiced jhum cropping at large. In Tripura over 10,039 hectares of land are under Jhum cultivation. In 1955, it was estimated that there were 25,000 jhumias families in Tripura and the total land under jhoom cultivation was 16,00,000 acres. After 1949, when Bengalis from Bangladesh migrated to plain lands of Tripura, the jhumias used to sell their jhum cultivation vegetables and rice to them at a very low price and this led to the exploitation of the poor tribes. Accordling to Tripura Human Development Report, 2007, we know that, traditionally, most of the tribal population practised shifting or jhum cultivation and were termed jhumias. The term jhumia is a generic term used for tribal people dependent

(f) Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh has made a significant progress in gradually doing away with the age-old practice of jhum cultivation or shifting cultivation, which degrades the environment. In line with the Centre's 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 hectares to 84,000 hectares in the last 10 years. About 8.4 lakh metric tonnes of biomass gets lost due to burning of trees resulting in a huge emission of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides and other gases. The emission has been reduced by taking up rice and maize cultivation in terraces.
The harmful effects of jhum cultivation included rapid soil erosion due to deforestation of hill tops and slopes and high runoff velocity and siltation of reservoirs, rivulets and valleys. The harmful effects resulted in the rapid decrease of jhum productivity due to removal of top soil by runoff water and very little time to recuperate soil fertility due to reduced jhum cycle. Sixteen districts encompassing the eight Northeastern states, including West Kameng and East Siang districts in Arunachal Pradesh, are among the recently-identified 100 most climate-sensitive districts of the country.
Slashing or felling down of trees, herbs and shrubs for jhum cultivation reduces oxygen generation and burning of them pumps harmful carbon-monoxide, nitrous oxides and many other gases into the air. The state government's attachment of top priority to agriculture, horticulture and allied sectors, would add to the national food productivity and help achieve 6.5 per cent annual growth by the end of 12 th Five Year Plan set by the Agriculture Ministry (The Times of India, 2013).
The practice of the shifting cultivation is a major occupation for the people of Arunachal Pradesh. Some people have shifted from village to urban areas due to varied reason but majority of people do reside in the remote rural villages of the state. The only means of livelihood is to practice this kind of agriculture. Jhumming is very closely associated with the culture and tradition. The Jhumias have been depending on their Jhum and as they have cultivated many economical plants which may include vegetables, medicinal plants, spices, taroos and yams, grain etc. They practice rearing of pigs, cows, goats etc. The fodder and feeds of these animals also comes from the field thereby decreasing pressure on pastoral land. Hence it is linked to their economy (Murtem et. al, 2008).

Merits of Shifting Cultivation
According to the jumias, there are many advantages of jumfarming. Jumis an indigenous knowledge-based production system that helps to maintain the traditional culture and heritage of the indigenous peoples. Jumiasget diverse seasonal crops from jumfields and it secures their rice, vegetable and other food needs for at least a few months of the year.Jumis a zero-tillage cultivation system with minimum soil disturbance and nutrient loss. Jumis rain-fed, so there is no need of watering or irrigation in a jum field. There is a higher agro-biodiversity in jumthan in lowland agricultural systems. Jumiashave their own seed preservation system for future cultivation. There is a great demand of seasonal and annual cash crops from jum, like ginger, turmeric, chili, cucumber (jummarfa), kozu/kochu (arum/aroides), etc. in the local market.
Shifting cultivation is the source of income for rural people in hilly areas.When crops are cultivated, after a certain amount of time, the nutrients become depleted from the soil. Shifting cultivation means setting aside a different, more nutrient-rich plot of land in which to grow vegetables. In the past, farmers have switched between different plots of land, which has allowed for the soil in certain plots to regain nutrients. Some proponents claim that an advantage of shifting cultivation lies in the fact that it does not use fertilizers or chemicals to force crops to grow in nutrient-depleted soil. It helps to keep a good amount of diverse nutrients in the soil. One crop might take all of the nitrates out of the soil so after a year or two have no nitrates in that area and the plant will not grow well. This is when would either leave that area alone for a few years or plant a crop that puts nitrates back into the soil. Crop rotation is keys in large-scale, long term operations.
Market demand for fruits and availability of saplings in the market have motivated the jumiasto opt for fruit orchards (particularly pineapple, mango, papaya and litchi) in the homesteads. Income and expenditure of some of the jumia households have increased because they are including market-driven cash crop cultivation like turmeric, chilli, ginger, aroides, and fruit trees like banana in their jum plots. In spite of the many benefits from jum, the jumias in the study areas also see some disadvantages.
Shifting cultivation is a form of land use which enhances biodiversity. Severe declines in plant diversity have been observed in most areas when shifting cultivation is replaced by permanent land use systems. Particularly worrying is the decline in agrobiodiversity. Shifting cultivators have preserved agrobiodiversity through local rules, practices and the informal networks for exchange of seeds and knowledge, thus ensuring food security of their communities. Along with the replacement of shifting cultivation comes the collapse of these networks, which results in a substantial loss of crop genetic resources. The availability of high genetic diversity in agricultural plants has, however, been identified as a key element in adaptation strategies to climate change.

Demerits of Shifting Cultivation
Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, and then abandoned. This system often involves clearing of a piece of land followed by several years of wood harvesting or farming, until the soil loses fertility (Henriques, 2007). One of the most important negative environmental impacts of shifting cultivation is the damage that it causes to the soil system. It accelerates the soil erosion manifold. Besides causing air pollution due to burning, shifting cultivation is responsible for loss of soil nutrients and useful soil fauna and microbes. Burning of slash lowers soil acidity, organic matter and total nitrogen. Most shifting cultivation practices are subsistence level farming system having very low output/ input ratio compared to other farming systems/methods. Excessive agricultural activity of shifting cultivation not only decreases the forest area, but also changes the primary forest into secondary woodland of shrub. On the phase of soil property, it accelerated the soil and gully erosion, and acidification (Das, Choudhury, & Roy, 2012).
The cultivation of Jhum leads to loss of natural forest ecosystems creating huge impact on environment. The extraction and the felling of large tracts of forest cover on the onset of Jhum distribute the environment in many ways. Loss in forest cover results on climatic variation like-uneven rainfall, precipitation, wind, humidity etc.The loss in biodiversity affects the environmental climatic conditions of a region affecting the abode of various faunas.Deforestation that results from the cause of shifting cultivation interference with the rain as vegetation plays a vital role in the rain cycle. The mass destruction of forest cover with forest canopy gaps lead to deforestation and this limit in rain formation due to low limited evapo-transpiration.
The defect of jhuming lies in the fact that the land can produce crops only once in several years (5 to 19 years) depending on the jhum cycle. But under settled fanning, the same field can be brought under multiple cropping with scientific management under irrigation, which can produc two or more crops. Thus, productivity per bigha under jhum cultivation is significantly lower than the settled cultivation. The level of income from jhuming appears to be very poor compared to prevailing wage rates. The grow-ing population has brought about a vicious circle of more area being jhum leading to shortening of fallow period and consequent deterioration of soil fertility, which requires bringing more plots under jhuming.

Conclusion
Shifting cultivation is in transition across the world. The characteristics of the shifting cultivation are changing over time. Reducing fallow period, or in some cases with no fallow, and changing vegetation management practices are major alterations in shifting cultivation. The statistically valid information on biodiversity value of the shifting cultivation lands and impacts of changing practices on biodiversity is inadequate to establish clear relationships. Further research is recommended on effects of changing shifting cultivation practices on biodiversity. Shifting cultivation is common cultivation in north-eastern states. In India the total area under jhum cultivation is 0.94 m ha whereas North East India itself accounts for 80% of the jhum area (0.76 m ha).
Traditional land practices exacerbated by poverty and associated with a lack of technical knowledge is the main cause for the continuation of unsustainable shifting cultivation. Population pressure, inadequate land for cultivation, low education levels, policy planning and implementation without local participation are all factors that influence farmers' decision to continue shifting cultivation. Intensive land management through agroforestry is a promising alternative that can sustainably manage the remaining forest resources. If adopted, such systems potentially provide good economic returns, and may significantly reduce rural poverty.