JAKHAMA (Nagaland), March 31 — After the introduction of “Nagaland Environment Protection and Economic Development through People’s Action (NEPED)” in 1995, the forest coverage in Nagaland has increased remarkably. NEPED is an agroforestry project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) through the Indo-Canada Environment Facility (ICEF). It can be mentioned here that the agroforestry system is an alternative to jhum cultivation.
The benefits of agroforestry are to increase the land productivity, including biomass and food, increasing the arable land, promoting farmers economic and living standard and effectively maintaining ecological balance and protecting the environment. The agroforestry system is now being popularised in the Northeastern region following the age old traditional jhum cultivation has become a major threat to the environment in the form of cutting and burning the forests and the erosion of soil.
The shifting cultivation is the only means of livelihood of the tribes of Nagaland but due to the increase of population, it has become very difficult for the jhumias to survive through this as the jhum cycle has shortened remarkably in the state. There is tremendous potential or forestry development in Nagaland and the soil and climatic conditions are conducive for the growth of trees. The jumais are cultivating various types of crops and at the same time different types of tree sampling in jhuming system is recommended by NEPED considering the urgent need of agrisilviculture system involving sequential integration of trees and crops in time. This was experimentally started in the two Augami Naga-dominated villages, namely, Jakhama and Khanama, near Kohima, the capital of Nagaland.
This correspondent has visited the Jakhama village and experienced the agri-silviculture under NEPED. In these villages, the Alder trees have been grown in the hills. The local Angami people called it Rupro. The botanical name of Alder is Alnus Nepatensis belong to the family of Betulaceal Renowned environmentalist and the Vice-Chancellor of Nagaland University Dr GD Sharma while talking to this corespondent expressed satisfaction for the success of agri-silviculture and said that the level of awareness has increased and the economic conditions of the jumias will now be improved. He said that the Alder trees increase the nitrogen in the soil which helps the jhumias during the cultivation as a fertilizer. The leaves of Alder tree are also used as a fodder, Dr Sharma added. He mentioned the tireless efforts of AM Gokhale, the former chief secretary of the State, regarding the introduction of NEPED in Nagaland This is a non-governmental project and the State government is monitoring it and Gokhale is the member of the Monitoring committee.
Traditionally, Nagas subsists primarily by cultivating the hill slopes surrounding their villages by means of a practices on shifting system in which they associate the Alder tree for enhancing the soil fertility and growing various crops. Alder is a common early succession and nitrogen– fixing tree species, which is innovated by the Nagas for its soil fertility management and yield high biomass in this farming system since time immemorial.
Naga farmers have learned to exploit its nitrogen – fixing capacity by including it in the agroforestry farming system. Alder is easy to propagate, grows rapidly and prolific coppising makes it an important fuel species. Alder tree grows profusely within 68 years cycle, provide fuel wood, and the stumps are kept in the field, which in turn increase soil fertility by means of firing nitrogen from the atmosphere and also check the soil erosion. Fallow land is revitalised by careful pollarding of the coprise against the main trunks. The result indicated that the system comprising of Alder tree (entity 200-400/hectares) with plantation of various crops has intensified swidden into a two years cropping and two years fallow cycle (relatively 1:1) of cropping of fallow periods. Other than manure deposited by the livestock and the decomposition of the crop residue no external input of fertilizer is applied to the system, yet crop yields are as high now as at any time within memory. Apart from this importance, the plant has various ethnofotanisally importance in the Naga society.
The jhumias of Jakahama village have also become conscious about the fruitful results of the planting of Alder trees in the jhum land. The lder based agroforestry system was experimentally introduced in this village but it is now quite common in Nagaland. The Alder-based jhum cultivation system practised by the ethnic people of Nagaland is a striking example of sustainable land use system.
Through agri-silviculture system, it is possible to obtain higher production as an alternative to jhum under Nagaland situation. This is possible by indusium of maize, paddy, cowpea, wheat cole crops, tomato etc under arrogated condition, paddy maize pea, gramme etc under non-arrogated condition in the foothills, valley, terraced land. On mild and higher slopes, paddy, tapioca, ginger, turmeric, fruit crops namely pineapple, guava, papaya, litchi, organge plume, peach and plantation crops like coffee, tea may be grown including timber plantation as recommended by NEPED. Besides meeting grain, vegetables, fruits, fuel and timber wood, the system have also been found to circumvent further degradation of soil and enshrinement resources of Nagaland.