The traditional
shifting cultivation farming technique of
indigenous communities and
Bengalis in the
Chittagong Hill Tracts in
Bangladesh and nearby regions in
Arunachal Pradesh,
Mizoram, and
Nagaland in India is known as jhum cultivation.
Technique and crops
In the month of January, the jhummias cut down the forest on the slope of the hill. Afterwards, they clean the land and dry the wood, bamboo and plants they have cut down in the sun. Later around March–April, the dried material is burnt and made suitable for jhum cultivation.
Next, in the
Bengali month of
Baishakh
Boishakh (, ne, बैशाख, ''Bôishakh'', ''Baishakh'') is the first month in the Assamese calendar, Bengali calendar and Nepali calendar. This month lies between the second half of April and the first half of May.
Etymology
The name of ...
and
Jyeshtha (around May), jhummias dig holes in the burnt jhum soil and sow different types of seeds, including
paddy
Paddy may refer to:
People
*Paddy (given name), a list of people with the given name or nickname
*An List of ethnic slurs#P, ethnic slur for an Irishman
Birds
*Paddy (pigeon), a Second World War carrier pigeon
*Snowy sheathbill or paddy, a bird ...
, marfa, sweet pumpkin,
cotton,
sesame
Sesame ( or ; ''Sesamum indicum'') is a flowering plant in the genus ''Sesamum'', also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cu ...
, and
maize, which are cultivated several mon the later, depending on the particular crop.
Jhum cultivation does not take place in some years due to
drought. Yields are expected to be huge if there is no infestation of rats and other insects.
Jhum cultivation requires that farmers move their plots from year to year to allow the land to recover. Previously, natural forests of the hills were kept uncultivated for a long time. In recent times, however, the uncultivated period has been dangerously reduced from the traditional ten years to two to three years. This is due to depletion of agricultural land and loss of available land due to population pressure, the
Kaptai reservoir, and large-scale non-tribal settlement.
Drawbacks
Jhum cultivation causes extensive damage to the environment. Harmful effects of jhum cultivation include loss of
soil fertility
Soil fertility refers to the ability of soil to sustain agricultural plant growth, i.e. to provide plant habitat and result in sustained and consistent yields of high quality. , soil erosion,
deforestation, destruction of
wildlife habitat, and flooding of rivers and lakes. As a result, production declines so much that a Jhummia family cannot survive in one place. The most widely followed minimum seven to eight-year cycle is currently reduced to three to four years which is not at all sufficient. Due to these reasons, the crop yield has now declined at a huge rate, making it critical to devise suitable alternatives to jhum cultivation.
See also
*
Shifting cultivation
*
Slash-and-burn
References
{{Reflist
Geography of South Asia
