Jhum Cultivation And The Hills Of Manipur

G. Hiamguanglung *

Jhum Cultivation seen in this Breath-taking landscape of Manipur :: Pix - Bullu Raj

With the conclusion of the festive season, the jhumias are back to jhum to do the usual process of their living. In every jhum village's selection of jhum sites for this year are over, the process of slashing and cutting are at the race, and most cultivators are at the stage of completion. Within a short weeks "Smoke will be seen in the Hills of Manipur", signifies the onset of entire jhum cultivation processes and the end of festive season.

Shifting cultivation, or 'jhum' cultivation as it is more commonly known in India, is "any agricultural system in which fields are cleared by firing and are cropped discontinuously or an agricultural system which is characterized by a rotation of fields rather than crops by short periods of cropping (upto twenty and more years, but often as short as six to eight years); and by clearing by means of slash and burn". It is both a labour intensive and land extensive process of cultivation.

This type of cultivation is known under different names in the different countries, it is known commonly as 'slash-and-burn agriculture,' 'swidden' or rotational bush fallow agriculture, and as 'jhum' cultivation in Northeast India. In Manipur, shifting or jhum cultivation is known as "Pam-Lou" and is widely practiced in all the Hill areas inhabited by different tribes.

Shifting cultivation occupies a distinct place in the tribal economy and constitutes a vital part of the life style and socio-economic set up of hill and tribal regions. Shifting cultivation of Manipur is believed as "the most primitive, labour intensive rainfed system for sustenance. It is cyclic cultivation in which a patch of land is cleared of trees and other vegetations, debris burnt and seeds broadcast or dibbled in minimum tillage conditions without using ploughs or animal power.

Field are separated into many parts by placing the unburned wood/bamboo in order to control the over run of rain water and preservation of plant nutrients. It is composite types of farming where almost all the varieties of cereals and vegetables, together with tree crops, are grown in a single field. After cultivation of crops for shorter period, the land remains fallow for longer period for regeneration of vegetation and soil nutrients until the cycle repeat again. This practice has an in-built mechanism of sustenance and conservation. Jhum or shifting types of cultivation involved three types of technology;

1. Soil Technology

>> Slashing and Burning is generally a way of enriching the soil with ashes.
>> Rituals and Cultural Practices are performed in order to ensure soil fertility.
>> jhum sites are selected to those forests which had maximum fallow period and had the best chance of successful crop.

2. Irrigational Technology

>> In order to control the over run of water and preservation of plant nutrients from being carried away by the rain-water, they separate out the field into many parts by placing the unburned woods into rows and columns.

3. Crop Husbandry

>> Composite Farming – about 25-30 varieties of vegetables were grown in jhum fields.
>> Each crop has its specific location within the plot, including the boundary, burnt heaps, burnt bamboo groves, main field, near hut, and near poles and tree stumps
>> It provides foods for the whole years.
>> In some villages secondary jhum were used mostly for growing cash crop.

Despite its ancient roots and popularity in the hill and tribal regions, shifting cultivation has been subject to severe criticism, primarily on ecological grounds. There are, however, others who view it in better light. Regarding the benefits and desirability of curbing shifting cultivation, there appears to be a polarization of views between anthropologists and sociologists on the one hand, and economists and ecologists on the other. Anthropologists and sociologists, in general, have been appreciative of shifting cultivation and caution against hasty steps to eliminate it because of the close symbiotic relationship between shifting cultivation and tribal life and culture. Instead, they advocate adapting shifting cultivation to the changing environment.

Economists and ecologists by and large are, however, convinced that it cannot be sustained further without adverse environmental and economic costs. However, as long as jhum cycles were long regeneration of lands affected by shifting cultivation was possible. However, due to anthropogenic pressure, demand of more food have cleared greater chunks of forests, fallow phase between two successive cropping phases has come down. This is adversely affecting eco-restoration and ecological process of forests. Shorter fallow periods are often allowing dominance of herbaceous weeds and soil erosion. As a result, yields are being adversely affected and gradually declining over a period of time.

Whatever the depreciative of jhum, in hill districts of Manipur, jhum/shifting cultivation remains the main dominant type of cultivation. According to the various estimates of paddy/rice sown areas in hill districts of Manipur, during 1985-86 and 2000-01, paddy/rice sown areas under jhuming show signs of increasing and paddy/rice sown areas under permanent cultivation shows signs of declining. However, during 2000-01 to 2008-09, a slight positive change has been observed in paddy/rice sown areas under jhuming and permanent cultivation. During 1985-86, out of 66.45 thousand hectare estimated area under rice by types of cultivation, 37.97 per cent sown areas were under jhuming and 62.03 per cent was under permanent cultivation.

Moreover, in 1990-91, out of 56.07 thousand hectare estimated area under rice by type of cultivation of 42.46 per cent sown area was under jhuming and the remaining was under permanent cultivation. Then in 2000-2001, out of 67.96 thousand hectare estimated area under rice by type of cultivation, 58.55 per cent sown area was under jhuming and 41.45 per cent of sown areas were under permanent cultivation. Then in 2008-09, out of 74.71 estimated areas under rice by type of cultivation in hill districts of Manipur, 53.46 per cent sown areas were under jhuming and 46.54 per cent were under permanent cultivation. This shows that jhum remain the main type of cultivation in the hill districts of Manipur.

Although the land-person ratio is higher in the hills than in the valley, agricultural productivity has been very low. From 1986-2009, the yields rates of rice from the hill district of Manipur are almost stagnant (i.e 1708kg/hec in 1986, 1460kg/hec in 1991, and 1942kg/hec in 2001 and 1749kg/hec in 2009). Based on our estimate of rice requirement and production (demand per person per annum at 207 kg as in NSS), the agrarian sector in the hills had surplus in the first period and then it fall back to deficit economy that is 11.71 ('000 tonnes), -52.83('000 tonnes), -50.59 ('000 tonnes) in 1986, 1991 and 2001 respectively. Even in the current stage, the status of rice production does not show any impressive trend in the hills of Manipur.

The persistence of primitive and primordial methods of cultivation that is slash and burn/shifting/swidden cultivation, increasing population pressure on land resulting in shortening of jhum cycles, and extremely low utilization of modern inputs have been some of the causes of the output shortages. Self-sufficiency in foodgrains is an important requirement for food security, but in the case of Manipur hills, with a dispersed population living in remote, intractable and poorly connected terrains, and poor infrastructures, local self- sufficiency is crucial for food security.

Our case study in Tamenglong district found that in per acre of land (productivity of paddy per acre of land), valley wet rice produced two time more productive(with mechanisation) and terraces wet rice produced one-half time more productive then jhum, (with jhum produced about 550 kg of paddy per acre of land). Therefore it is difficult to ascribe shifting/jhum cultivation as a source of livelihoods in the modern ages but as a source subsistence for the hills people. With this deficit structure of the economies, the tribal peoples of Manipur try to eke out their living by engaging in various supplementary sources.

While a part of the population underwent an economic shift- from jhum to plow - actual displacement of jhum land was probably minor, since relatively level valley land or terraces would not have been of great attraction for jhum cultivation due to hue investment. Economic activities such as farm diversification in the form of growing cash crops (fruits and non-fruits crops), keeping livestocks, etc and non-farm activities such as weaving, carpentry, handicraft, etc act as important supplementary sources of livelihoods.

However the skewed distribution of infrastructure such as road, transportation, market, post harvest handling, and power in the tribals villages are found to be the main impediments for diversification and commercialisations which really increased the cost of disposition. Improved infrastructure, appropriate research and extension, access to land and credit markets, information, support to institutional building (market information systems, standards and grades, trade associations) are all different ways to lower transaction costs.

Therefore, development of market mechanisms, credit institutions and infrastructure are in urgent needs in order to achieve the fruits of farm and non-farm activities and to can offers significant opportunities for household income augmentation and employment generation in the hill districts of Manipur. Reorientation of government policies, easy access to institutional support and the active participation of local people in development intervention are of the utmost importance in order to achieve sustainable hill farming and to improve the farmer's living standards.