Evaluation of Agricultural systems practiced in Upper Siang and Upper Dibang areas of Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast India
G. Ghosh
Department of Botany, Bejoy Narayan Mahavidyalaya, Itachuna, Hooghly-712147 (India) *Corresponding author: E-mail: goutambot@rediffmail.com WhatsApp No. 9432075078
ABSTRACT
The study of agricultural systems includes jhum, valley and terrace cultivation available in Upper Siang and Upper Dibang areas of Arunachal Pradesh. Three types of jhum based on their previous forest vegetation types of terraces such as hill terrace and river basin terrace were used.The agricultural systems were evaluated in terms of productivity and economics. The trend of crop production was more or less similar in bamboo based- forest derived jhum and bamboo free forest derived jhum. Production of crops was high in the first year and it decreased with the increasing cropping years. But it showed quite different results in case of grassland derived jhum where production of crops for the first-year cropping was low and the next year was very high then it decreased with the increasing number of cropping years like the other jhum types. The highest yield was obtained at low elevation valley among all the agricultural systems. The bamboo free forest-derived jhum recorded the highest yield than that of other jhum types. The study suggested that management of grassland derived jhum was one of the best ethnic knowledge of land use practices and the valley cultivation of rice was tenable on both economic and ecologic considerations. The river basin terraces closer to the valleys eventually converted into valley lands were viable for longer duration.