14 Shifting Cultivation

Sangay Diki Bhutia and K.R. Rammohan

Contents:

    1. Introduction

• The definition of shifting cultivation
• Process of shifting cultivation
• Geographical location

2. Shifting cultivation and its changes in china

2.1 Theoretical background

2.2 The main causes of change of shifting cultivation

3. Shifting cultivation in India

3.1 Basic features of shifting cultivation

3.2 Causes of shifting cultivation

3.3 Effects of shifting cultivation

4. Shifting cultivation (jhum) in Nagaland, Northeast India

Summary

Learning Objectives:

• This module will enable to clear the concept of Shifting Cultivation
• This module will equip the students with certain theoretical aspects of Shifting cultivation
• This module highlights about the shifting cultivation practices in China and India with reference to North Eastern India
• This module explains the changing nature of Shifting Cultivation

    1. Introduction

The definition of shifting cultivation

It is widely accepted that shifting cultivation is an agricultural system characterized by a rotation of fields rather than of crops. Shifting cultivation is a way of discontinuous cropping in which periods of fallowing are typically longer than periods of cropping. Shifting cultivation typically has a way of clearing the fields, generally termed as ‘swiddens’ through the use of slash-and-burn techniques. Shifting cultivation is known by a variety of terms (including field-forest rotation, slash and burn, and swiddening)

It is reported that shifting cultivation is widespread throughout the humid tropics, but was also practiced in temperate Europe until the nineteenth century (and sometimes later) (Conklin, 1962). It is estimated that there are over 250 million shifting cultivators world-wide, with 100 million in South-East Asia alone. Shifting cultivation is enormously heterogeneous and subtypes can be distinguished according to crops raised, crop associations and successions, fallow lengths, climatic and soil conditions, field technologies, soil treatment and the community’s mobility of settlement. It is understood that in all shifting cultivation systems, the burning of cleared vegetation is critical to the release of nutrients, which ensures field productivity.

Shifting cultivation is the practice of bringing into agriculture previously uncultivated land for several seasons followed by abandonment as part of a human nomadic culture. It is increasingly recognized that the traditional shifting cultivation practiced by traditional and indigenous communities, particularly in the tropics, represents a sustainable form of agriculture that is well adapted to natural and semi natural ecosystems, most notably in the rain forests. Far from proving an inefficient or wasteful form of agriculture, as was once thought, shifting cultivation is now regarded by many scientists and grass root environmentalists as the least harmful to the environment and to the diversity of wildlife.

Operationally, shifting cultivation can be defined as a system of agriculture under which plots of land were cultivated for a limited period without the application of manure until crop yields declined. The land was then abandoned and left to revert to forest with new plots being cleared. This is believed to have been one of the main forms of agriculture in Neolithic Europe and was characteristic of marginal forest areas into medieval times. It survived in North Scandinavia into the early 20th Century and is still used in the tropics, though on a much smaller scale than formerly. Shifting cultivation is known as Ladang in Malaysia and Indonesia, Milpa in central America, Chitenmene in parts of Africa, Jhum/ Kumri in India and Chena in Sri Lanka.

Rath (2015) defines Shifting cultivation as “any continuing agriculture system in which impermanent clearings are cropped for shorter periods in years than they are allowed to remain fallow, it is also defined as an agricultural system which is characterized by ‘slash and burn’ and by short period of cropping alternating with long fallow periods”.

It is an agricultural system which is characterized by a rotation of field rather than a crop, by a short period of cropping alternating with long fallow periods of cropping and clearing by means of slash and burn. It is also a labour intensive and land extensive process of cultivation. Its origin is traced to as far back as the Neolithic period between the years 1300 to 3000 B.C. It occupies a distinct place in the tribal economy and constitutes a vital part of the lifestyle and socio-economic set-up of hill and tribal regions. This form of cultivation is regarded as a distinct stage in the evolution of agriculture (Ninan, 1992).

It is understood that Shifting cultivation is the most primitive among all types of agriculture. The variety of soil, climate and vegetation is responsible for many types of agriculture in the world. The development of agriculture has passed through two distinct lines: plains cultivation and hills cultivation. Shifting cultivation falls in the later category, this system of cultivation has been considered to be the most ancient, dating back to the Neolithic period between the years 13,000 to 3,000 B.C. It is a distinctive type of agriculture practiced at a primitive level of operation under certain environmental constraints.

According to Verrier Elwin, shifting cultivation is a stage in the evolution of human culture and almost all the races have resorted this practice in some stage or the other. Shifting cultivation occupies a distinct place in the tribal economy; it constitutes a vital part of the socio-economic network of the tribal life particularly the hill tribal economy, which is regarded as the principal source of livelihood. Shifting cultivation is an ancient system of agriculture, in which a patch of hill is cleared through fire and is cropped through rotation. Therefore the shifting cultivation is also known as “field forest rotation” or “slash and burn” agriculture as it always involves the impermanent agriculture use of plots produced by cutting hacks and burning of vegetatation cover. Shifting cultivation is a process which consists of cutting of trees on tops and slopes of hills, burning the fallen trees and bushes and dibbling or broadcasting seeds in the ash covered soil. Goods crops are harvested for the first two or three years at a diminishing rate and then the land is abandoned leaving only ‘bald hills’ devoid of any economic or ecological importance. Then a new clearing is opened for fresh cultivation. The cultivation is thus shifted from one patch of land to another abandoning one after another bringing large scale devastation of soil fertility and vegetation (Rath, 2015).

Fig 1: slash and burn cultivation/ Jhum cultivation

Source: https://commons.wikkimedia.org

SHIFTING CULTIVATION

Process of shifting cultivation

The meaning of the shifting cultivation is discussed in the above paragraphs. In the hill slopes the practice of shifting cultivation using slash and burn method is typical of aboriginals. They periodically cut down the forest trees and burn them in order to clear an area for planting. The ash thus collected is spread on the entire patch of land which works as manure, afterwards the seeds are dibbled in the soil. On this land crops are raised for one to three years and after the fertlity of the soil diminishes and when the soil is unable to support any crops further, the field is abandoned to get recouped naturally. Naturally cultivation is shifted to another land and the cultivator returns to the original plot after the soil regains its fertility (Rath, 2015).

Geographical location

Shifting cultivation takes on its most characteristic forms in regions which have one or more seasons of copious rain, alternating with shorter periods when little or no rainfalls. In such places relative humidity remains high throughout the dry season. In such climate the natural vegetation is rain forest. The shifting cultivation extends beyond the limits of the rain forest across a marginal zone covered with similar vegetation (Whittlesey, 1937).

Shifting cultivation is practiced with variations throughout the tropical and sub- tropical regions of the world. It is also practiced by the pre-historic man. The primitive communities of 63 countries in Africa, Asia, South America and Central America follow this practice of agriculture. Shifting cultivation is practiced by a number of tribes in the world. The Yuruba of Congo Basin, the Bemba of Northern Rhodesia, the Yao of Southern Nyasaland, the Malaysians of Solomon Islands, the Boro of Western Amazon Forest, the Bakairi Indians of Upper Xingu Region in South America, Hill tribes of North Borneo and Veddah of Ceylon are few examples of tribes who are still practicing this primitive form of cultivation (Rath, 2015).

2. Shifting cultivation and its changes in China

In the 1980s shifting cultivation in China became a hot issue, it became the subject of debate among national and international scholars, along with the questions such as what shifting cultivation really was, and whether or not it destroyed forests. During 1970s and 1980s there was serious rainforest destruction in Asia, Africa and South America for the greed of timber shown by enterprises based in developed countries. While forest destruction became a global environmental issue, the indigenous people who lived in this forest and their shifting cultivation has become a subject of close attention by scholars around the world.

Shifting cultivation has a very long history in China; with the loss of forest area the practice of shifting cultivation diminished. With the end of the Cultural Revolution in the mid 1970s, international ideas became popular and the people began to pay more and more attention to environmental problems. However the ethnic minorities living in the Southwest of Yunnan Province continued the practice of shifting cultivation and they are blamed for destroying forest.

2.1 Theoretical background

Marxist ethnic theory

This theory was followed and practiced well in China: with the motive of social development which can be found in relationship between productive forces and society’s need for production. The history of social development reflects five kind of social evolution: among them is that affecting shifting cultivators. According to this theory, shifting cultivation refers to the productive forces of primitive society, so there is compulsion for change, which the superior societies must have transformed or replaced.

This gives rise to a number of questions: why do the productive forces of a primitive society continue to exist without change? Why do ethnic minorities living in mountain areas still choose shifting cultivation for their livelihood? Is it appropriate, for most of the natural scientists and anthropologist to prove that shifting cultivation is backward and primitive, but neglect the points of view of indigenous people?

Agricultural evolution theory

There are three distinct periods in the evolution of agriculture, beginning with primitive shifting cultivation, moving to hoe farming and to cultivating the soil with ploughs. Therefore, in the mountain areas of Southwestern Yunnan province, we can find ‘living fossils’ where indigenous people still practice shifting cultivation.

In primitive societies people would have used knives and axes and other tools made of stones for shifting cultivation. Today, indigenous people not only use iron and steel knives for shifting cultivation, but they also use hoes and ploughs made from iron and steel for farming.

Fig 2: The Evolution of Agriculture

Economic- cultural theory

This theory refers to the synthesis created by people who live in the same physical conditions and at a similar level of social development. It is difficult to fix the boundaries between different economic-cultural typologies referred to the synthesis created by people who live in the same physical conditions and at a similar level of social development.The question then arises: is the type of shifting cultivation determined by environment or physical conditions?

Cultural ecology (1940s) and ecological anthropology (1970s)

In traditional societies, the focus was mainly upon the livelihood of the people and their adaptation to their living environment. The ability of human beings to adopt is an effective means of defining the relationship between people living in a small-scale society and their natural environment.

The disadvantage of this ‘ecological adaptation’ rule is that it cannot measure the characteristics of a society that is, or has been, strongly impacted by the decisions of the country’s government, or by the demands or fluctuations of the market.(Yin, 2015).

2.2 The main causes of change of shifting cultivation

The ideology of the state

Shifting cultivation is regarded as the productive force of a primitive society. In China, people use advanced productive force to replace primitive ones, which is the only one direction beyond the primitive society towards a socialist society.

Government policies

To change and replace shifting cultivation, the central government has implemented a number of policies, law and regulations to forbid shifting cultivation.

Social reform

The implementation of a socialist transformation by using its administrative system to replace traditional social organization and cultural systems, resulted in traditional production and living systems to lost their balance.

Population growth

The population of ethnic minorities living in mountainous areas of Yunnan Province has tripled, over the past 60 years. With the increase in the number of individuals the relationship between the population and use of the land has become uneasy, so it is difficult for minority groups to continue shifting cultivation.

Market economy

Along with other reforms and policies the central government of China is paying close attention to developing the market economy. In order to pursue economic interests, most ethnic minority groups started planting rubber and other cash trees such as tea and various fruits. As a result, shifting cultivation is disappearing quickly.

3. Shifting cultivation in India

Shifting cultivation is commonly known as Jhum cultivation in India. The practice is similar to the form of shifting cultivation like other countries from the different corners of the world. It occupies a distinct place in the tribal economy of India. Many studies on shifting cultivation in India have been conducted by different institutions and researchers. In India shifting cultivation is largely found in the states of Andhra Pradesh, the hill districts of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha and Tripura.

3.1 Basic features of shifting cultivation

(Rath, 2015) has classified the basic features of shifting cultivation as:

1. This system of cultivation is practiced mainly by simpler cultures and small population but occasionally used by almost anyone for whom the cropping system appears expedient.
2. Human labour is the chief input, and a few simple hand tools are used in the cultivation.
3. Labour pattern frequently cooperative, but involving many variations in working group structure.
4. Clearing of fields primarily by felling, cutting, slashing and burning, and using fire to dispose of vegetative debris after drying.
5. Frequent shifting of cropped fields, normally in some kind of sequence in land control, resting in special social groupings under customary law, but sometimes occurring under other legal institutions of land control.
6. Many different systems in crop planting in given fields but both multiple cropping and specialized cropping present.
7. Use of crops primarily for subsistence but exchange pattern may reach total sale of whole product.
8. Field per acre and per hour of man normally compared with those of permanent field agriculture within regions in which comparison is properly made but yields are often below those of mechanically powered permanent field agriculture.
9. Use of vegetable cover as soil conditioner and source of plant nutrient for cropping cycle.
10. When the system is efficiently operated soil erosion is not greater than soil erosion under other systems that are being efficiently operated.
11. Details of the practice vary depending upon the physical environment and cultural milieu.
12. Destruction of natural resources only when operated inefficiently and not more inherently destructive than other systems of agriculture when these are operated inefficiently.
13. A residual system of agriculture largely replaced by other systems except when retention of practice is expedient.
14. Transiency of residence common but not universal, with many patterns of residence according to the evolutionary level or detailed system employed and preference of culture group.
15. Operaed chiefly in the regions where more technologically advanced systems of agriculture have not become economically or culturally possible or in regions where the land has not yet been appropriated by people with greater political or cultural power

Fig 3: characteristics of Shifting Cultivation

3.2 Causes of shifting cultivation

In India the practice of shifting cultivation is not an abnormal one, as it is the main means for the survival of the indegenous tribes. As Rath, (2015) mentioned that the “primitive method” is the only negative factor and it is further differentiated as absolute, induced and accused.

I.  Absolute: under this category the tribals carry on the practice as an age old tradition, the tribes like Bonda, Didayi, Sora and Kandha are practising shifting cultivation as an age old tradition.

II. Induced: the outside unscrupulous money lenders volunteer to lend money to the tribals and induce them to carry on with an understanding, take a lion’s share of the produce as “interest”. The outstanding capital remains as heavy burden on the tribals and also ultimately engages the tribals as “bonded labourers”.

III. Accused: under this category some of the antisocial elements exercise their unauthorized influence to lure the Adivasis with a false hope to record the land in the name of the cultivator. But ultimately the cultivator is being accused as an offender.

    3.3 Effects of shifting cultivation

Economic and social impacts of shifting cultivation are viewed differently by different groups. As shifting cultivation damages forest, this practice is ruinous and wasteful, dries up the spring in the hills which causes soil erosion: destroy valuable forests, affects rainfall and deprives the people the benefit of forest and forest produce. Shifting cultivation upsets the accumulated natural resources by removing more from it than that it can produce.

The evil effects of shifting cultivation have been summed up by Mr Harries, Agency Commissions of Madras in 1918 (Rath, 2015).

1.      It causes springs below the hills to dry up.

2.     Causes the soil below the land to be washed away.

3.     Ruins valuable timber for the sake of much less valuable crops of gain.

4.   Causes the hot weather supplies in these rivers to diminish and this reduces the water available for second crop cultivation.

5.     Causes very heavy floods in the rivers and endangers life and property.

6.     It brings down heavy silt in to tanks and makes them useless to fields and destroys crops.

Thus the main effects of shifting cultivation are deforestation, soil erosion, diminished rainfall, silting up of the river channel, stream bed and reservoirs and deterioration of the climate of a region. It creates a bad impact on the forest ecosystem, as the forest ecosystem consists of major components like atmosphere, climate, soil and its living organisms. As the living organism (plants and animals) maintain a balance between carbon dioxide and oxygen in the atmosphere. This balance is disturbed as the tribes set fire to the forest for clearing the ground for the purpose of cultivation which result in increase of the quantity of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and it also generate poisonous gas in the region by large scale destruction of plants and trees.

The seminar conducted on Socio- Economic Problems of Shifting Cultivation held at Shillong on June 18, 1976 provided a session on the general problem of shifting cultivation, where some participants stated that “shifting cultivation” as “necessary evil” and concentrated on speculations as to how the evil could be removed or at least tempered with the civilizing influence of green revolution. If it is not taken into consideration then problems like soil erosion, deforestation and consequent ecological imbalances might occur. It was further stated that low productivity, absence of agricultural surplus, primitive technique of production and hence non- industrialization were the inevitable results of shifting cultivation (Majumdar, 1976).

4. Shifting cultivation (jhum) in Nagaland, Northeast India

The traditional agricultural system which is practiced by the people of Nagaland is shifting cultivation. It is believed that due to this practice the forest area are destructed which creates the problem of erosion of topsoil.

Many research studies are conducted in Nagaland in order to adapt to better agricultural practices to prevent climate change. One of the misconceptions about jhum is that it converts primary forest to agricultural land, it cumulatively reduces the forest cover and its environmental threats extend as far as loss of biodiversity. In reality, jhum farmers use and reuse the same areas of land when a cropping periods ends, the particular plot is abandoned and farmers move to another plot that has been used before. But it has to be fallowed for long enough to have rejuvenated the soil nutrients under secondary forest.

Studies were conducted in the years from 2002 to 2007, set out to determine how jhumming was affecting Nagaland’s forest cover. The results of the studies in the villages where the research was conducted, was that in some villages the primary forests which are converted for agricultural uses occurred around 100 years ago or even longer. Since then, their primary forests have remained intact. In some villages, the most recent conversion of primary forest for jhum cropping occurred between 41 and 50 years ago. Whereas in some villages the primary forest for jhum cropping occurred as recently as 11 to 20 years ago. However, in the villages where the research has been conducted, it recorded the conversion of primary forest which occurred only as an extension of land already within the existing jhum rotational cycle.

The survey conducted in many villages, showed that the area under jhum had been decreasing. The survey conducted by the Nagaland Empowerment of People through Economic Development (NEPED) project, which covered 119 villages in 10 of Nagaland’s 11 districts (excluding Dimapur). In 75 out of 119 villages (67%), the total jhum area was decreasing in 12 villages (12%) it showed an increase, and in 32 villages (27%) it remained static (Toy, 2015).

The decrease of jhum results in the people to adopt available alternative sources of livelihood, such as off- farm activities (e.g pig rearing, masonry, wage labour, and (so on), salaried jobs (private and public), and private enterprises (shop keeping, trading, contract work) and rural urban migration. The northern districts of Mon, Longleng, Tuensang and Kiphire where increase in the area of jhum was observed, could be linked to a lower literary rate. The large scale pratice of jhum cultivation in these areas could also be due to the rules enforced by the village authorities under customary law.

Therefore, it may be safely assumed that any decrease in the forest area in Nagaland is being compensated by an increase in under fallow re-growth, which eventually leads to permanent secondary forest. Perhaps the area of land reverting from agricultural use back to forest is greater than that being converted from primary forest to agriculture (Toy, 2015).

Summary

For centuries, indigenous and traditional communities throughout the tropics have used shifting cultivation for generations as part of a life‐giving, sustainable forest agriculture system. It is proved that shifting cultivation is often the only way in which the nutrient‐poor rainforest soils can support crops. It is one of the traditional agricultural system, in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned and allowed to revert to their natural vegetation while the cultivators move in to another plot. It is practiced throughout the tropical and subtropical region of the world. In china, this practice has become a hot issue and a subject of debate for many scholars from within and outside the country. There is counter argument stating that Shifting cultivation is mainly effecting the environment and also disturbs the ecology. In India, the practice is still followed mostly by the tribal communities, as some suggest that it has some negative effects. Many scholars have showed their interest to study the problems related to such matters. Notwithstanding the positive effects of shifting cultivation, at the level of Government and International Financial Institutions, however, management of forests in a sustainable way through shifting cultivation has yet to be recognized as an environmentally beneficial form of economic activity.

References

• Majumdar, A(1976) Problems of shifting cultivation. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4364922 [Accessed: 13-04-2016]
• Nian.K.N (1992) “Economics of Shifting Cultivation in India” http://www.jstor.org/stable/4397726 [Accessed: 01-05-2016]
• Rath. N.K (2015) “Shifting cultivation in India: A Tribal Livelihood Alternative” New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company Pvt.Ltd.
• Toy. T (2015) “Some Lesser known facts about Jhum in Nagaland, Northeast India” in Cairns M.F (ed) Shifting Cultivation and Environmental Change, New York: Routledge
• Whittesey. D (1937) “Shifting cultivation” http://www.jstor.org/stable/140173 [Accessed: 01-06-2016]
• Yin S (2015) “Shifting Agriculture and its changes in Yunnan Province, China” in Cairns M.F (ed) Shifting Cultivation and Environmental Change, New York: Routledge

    Suggested Readings

• Ajay. P.2000. The Hoe and the Axe: An Ethno history of Shifting Cultivation in Eastern India, OUP, New Delhi
• Albert O.Aweto. 2013 Shifting Cultivation and Secondary Succession in Tropics.MPG Books, UK
• Delang, Claudio O., Li, Wing Man. 2013.Ecological Succession on Fallowed Shifting Cultivation Fields. Springer, Netherlands.
• Ellen, R. (1982) Environment, Subsistence and System: The Ecology of Small-Scale Social Formations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Forde, D. (1934) Habitat, Economy and Society, London: Methuen
• Ingold, T. (1986) Evolution and Social Life, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Jha, L.K. !997. Shifting Cultivation, APH Books, New Delhi.
• Malcom. F.Cairns. 2016 Shifting Cultivation and Environmental Change : Indigenous People, Agriculture and Forest Conservation.( edt) Routledge. London.
• Sachidanda. 1989. Shifting Cultivation in India. Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi
• Witfogel, K.  1957. Oriental Despotism. University of Washington Press, Seattle.
• Zubrow, E.B.W. 1975. Prehistoric Carrying Capacity: A Model, Cummings, Menlo Park, California.