The Indian government consistently tries to put an end to JHUM cultivation in the northeast with a “fixed” cultivation by allocating funds, plants and providing support for the transformation. However, the transformation will be a long -term process, says Sukamal Deb, Lead, Anant Center for Documentation and Design of Crafts (ACDC), Anant National University, Ahmedabad.
“Jhum cultivation is a primitive and unscientific land use that exhausts the forest, water and soil sources. The plowing of trees and cleaning up bushes accelerate soil erosion and accentuating the variability of the rainfall, which can lead to droughts or floods,” he said line In an online interaction.
As a result, the overall impact is a decrease in the fertility of the soil. Village households, depending on JHUM cultivation, are confronted with a shortage of food because of this practice, he said.
Slash-and-Burn Farming
JHUM cultivation is known as Slash-and-Burn Agriculture. It is also called the shifting cultivation. The concept is that a farmer who undertakes Jhum cultivation will not stay on the same field for many years. Maybe they will be there in two to three years and then they will shift to another place.
“As a result, the previous country gets that you have to select this. And then this, the previous one, is abandoned and results in the wild growth of grass and other plants.” The real challenge for JHUM cultivation is that we create such countries, which takes a lot of time to recognize or return to their normal state, “Deb said.
JHUM cultivation is not economically feasible because it is labor intensive and productivity is less. “It is ecological destructive because it hurts the environment,” said the Anant University ACDC Head.
“One of the challenges that happens is that the Jhum -fire sometimes goes beyond control. It can melt the nearby areas, sometimes a whole bambo garden, elephant grass and other such things burn. There is always a kind of threat and fear,” Deb said.
Clear spots
Central Think tank Niti Aayog formed a working group to understand JHUM growing in detail. It discovered that the availability of food and food status in the household was low and it culminates in poverty and ecological imbalance.
However, there are some clear places. In Arunachal Pradesh, the area under the JHUM cultivation fell to 1,551 km² in 2010 from 3,088 km² in 2000, however, a characteristic of Jhum cultivation is that several crops such as paddy, corn and vegetables are grown.
“Farmers are of the opinion that the quality of the product of JHUM cultivation is better. There were reports that some tribes thrown away were divided by ration shops and padie and corn in their field,” said the ACDC header of Anant University, who documents, supports and distributes the knowledge of craft and traditional system and spreads the knowledge of craft and traditional and spreads.
Farmers do not apply anything to artificial or external things to these Jhum farms. However, the contradiction with this agriculture is the burning of forests. “Burning is the second phase of agriculture. Some people denounce their land, then burn, while some burns and then fence,” he said.
Changes in techniques
Over the years, refinement of techniques and JHUM cultivation, which dates from almost 6,000 years, has been improved. Restoring land after Jhum Growing depends on the soil fertility and the density of the population in the area.
“If it is fertile, the recovery will come faster. If the population density is heavy, in that case they must return to the same piece of land for Jhum cultivation,” he said.
There are rituals such as animal sacrifice before sowing, and this has led to the “priest” system, where the priest offers Pooja and the sacrifice. The blood of the sacrificed animal is lubricated on the field to indicate that the country will be taken that year for Jhum cultivation.
Farmers apply their indigenous knowledge in the selection of locations, the establishment of screens, cleaning up forests, the use of fire and the use of semi -burning debris, which is used to prevent rainwater from flows down. “Jhum cultivation is both science and art,” said Deb, who makes a record of this agriculture.
The signals of nature
“Farmers start to harvest as soon as they see small birds in large groups are attracted by the Jhum fields. They immediately start to harvest, although initially not the whole quantity.” The wife of the owner of the Paddy Field will first collect a small amount of Paddy. She will dry it and keep it on top of a traditional oven. Once it is dried, the rice is removed and cooked. This helps them to properly understand the quality of the products, “he said.
The Monpa community of Arunachal, which is Buddhist, gather the leaves of an oak and makes compost out. This helps with the preservation of water on the field. The Apatnai community goes for sustainable Mountain Paddy Fish Farming, said the Anant University ACDC Head.
Jhum cultivation, however, is not an example of good land use, he said. There are examples of some tribals that resort to polygamy to let more women help with the Jhum grow, while there are many that practice monogamy.
More power for women
Called for a long-term recipe to put an end to JHUM cultivation, Deb said that women should get equal property rights because there are hidden connections between JHUM cultivation and empowerment of women.
There is a need for motivation, consciousness and having the innocent tribal people understand why the Jhum cultivation is not good for them. “In addition, we must give them an alternative path, so that their survival is never threatened. So it will not be a kind of enforcement,” he said.
Deb has a few suggestions based on his research to put an end to Jhum cultivation. One, the usual land loan of the community must be documented to formulate a uniform country policy, in particular for the Arunachal communities. He slowly ordered the introduction of a progressive land tax to plow it back for the well-being of farmers, monitoring the sale of land and curbs on the sale of cultivable land for non-guarantees.
Published on July 1, 2025
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