The Indian government is consistently trying to end Jhum cultivation in the North-East with “settled” cultivation by allocating funds, plants and providing support for the transformation. However, the transformation will be a lengthy process, says Sukamal Deb, Lead, Anant Centre for Documentation and Design of Crafts (ACDC), Anant National University, Ahmedabad.
“Jhum cultivation is a primitive and unscientific land use that depletes the forest, water and soil resources. The ploughing of trees and the clearing of bushes accelerate soil erosion and accentuate variability of rainfall, which may lead either to droughts or to floods,” he told businessline in an online interaction.
As a result, the overall impact is a decline in the fertility of the soil. Village households, depending on Jhum cultivation, face a shortage of food because of this practice, he said.
Slash-and-burn farming
Jhum cultivation is known as slash-and-burn farming. It is also called shifting cultivation. The concept is that a farmer undertaking Jhum cultivation will not stay on the same field for many years. Maybe, in two to three years, they will be there, and then they shift to another place.
“As a result, the previous land gets you have to select this. And then this, the previous one, gets abandoned and results in the wild growth of grass and other plants. “The real challenge for the Jhum cultivation is that we are creating such lands, which takes a lot of time to regenerate or revert to their normal condition,” said Deb.
Jhum cultivation is economically unviable as it is labour-intensive and productivity is less. “It is environmentally destructive because it hurts the environment,” said the Anant University ACDC head.
“One of the challenges that happens is that sometimes the Jhum fire goes beyond control. It can melt the nearby areas, sometimes burning an entire bamboo garden, elephant grass, and other such things. There is always a kind of threat and a fear,” said Deb.
Bright spots
Central think-tank Niti Aayog constituted a working group to understand Jhum cultivation in detail. It found the food availability and nutritional status in the household were low, and it culminates in poverty and ecological imbalance.
However, there are some bright spots. In Arunachal Pradesh, the area under Jhum cultivation declined to 1,551 sq km in 2010 from 3,088 sq km in 2000. However, a feature of Jhum cultivation is that multiple crops such as paddy, maize and vegetables are grown.
“Farmers believe that the quality of the product from Jhum cultivation is better. There were reports that some tribals discarded rice distributed through ration shops and consumed paddy and maize grown on their field,” said the ACDC Lead of Anant University, which documents, supports, nurtures and disseminates the knowledge of craft and traditional systems.
Farmers do not apply anything artificial or external things on these Jhum farms. However, the contradiction with this farming is the burning of forests. “Burning is the second phase of farming. Some people fence their land, then burn, while some burn and then fence,” he said.
Changes in techniques
Over the years, there have been refinement of techniques and Jhum cultivation, which dates back to nearly 6,000 years, has improved. Recovery of land after Jhum cultivation depends on the soil fertility and the density of the population in the area.
“If it is fertile, the recovery comes faster. If the density of population is heavy, in that case, they need to come back to the same plot of land for Jhum cultivation,” he said.
There are rituals such as animal sacrifice before sowing, and this has given rise to the “priest” system, where the priest offers pooja and the sacrifice. The blood from the sacrificed animal is smeared on the field to indicate that the land will be taken for Jhum cultivation that year.
Farmers apply their indigenous knowledge in the selection of sites, erecting fencing, clearing forests, setting fire and use of half-burnt debris, which is used to prevent rainwater from flowing down. “Jhum cultivation is science as well as art,” said Deb, who is making a record of this farming.
Nature’s signals
“Farmers begin harvesting once they see small birds in huge groups being attracted by the Jhum fields. They begin harvesting immediately, though not the entire quantity initially. “The wife of the owner of the paddy field will first collect a small amount of paddy. She will dry it, keeping it atop a traditional oven. Once it is dried, the rice is taken out and cooked. This helps them to understand the quality of the produce properly,” he said.
Arunachal’s Monpa community, which is Buddhist, collect the leaves of an oak tree and makes compost out of them. This helps in the retention of water on the field. The Apatnai community goes for sustainable mountain paddy fish farming, the Anant University ACDC head said.
However, Jhum cultivation is not an example of good land use, he said. There are examples of some tribals resorting to polygamy to have more women help them in Jhum cultivation, while there are many that practice monogamy.
More power for women
Calling for a long-term prescription to end Jhum cultivation, Deb said women should be given equal property rights, as there are hidden connections between Jhum cultivation and women’s empowerment.
There is a need for motivation, awareness, and making the innocent tribal people understand why the Jhum cultivation is not good for them. “Alongside, we need to give them an alternative pathway so that their survival is never threatened because of this. So, it will not be a kind of enforcement,” he said.
Deb has a few suggestions based on his research to end Jhum cultivation. One, the customary land loan of the community should be documented to formulate a uniform land policy, particularly for the Arunachal communities. He recommended the introduction of a progressive land tax slowly to plough it back for the farmers’ welfare, monitoring of sales of land and curbs on the sale of cultivable lands for non-farming purposes.
Published on July 1, 2025
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