Developing awareness and skills of the land users on measures of Jhum intensification & optimization in Mizoram, India

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Publié: 02 juillet 2020
Dernière modification: 25 septembre 2020
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Résumé

Jhum as a farming practice is mostly found in the North East India and it is the way of life and deeply embedded in the tradition and culture of the local communities of the region.  However in the recent past due to changes in the socio-economic condition and  land use pattern, shortcomings like reduced jhum cycles, reduced fallow period, loss in soil fertility and poor crop yields have started to emerge in the jhum field of Mizoram thereby threatening degeneration of the state's rich natural resource and well being of the community directly depending on them.

The IKI- Biodiv  project has helped in generating awareness  and  strengthened the capacity of the land users on measures of jhum optimization and intensification which will contribute to promoting biodiversity and ecosystem services while ensuring food and livelihood security of the farmers.

Classifications

Région
Asie du Sud-Est
Ampleur de la mise en œuvre
Intranational
Local
Ecosystème
Agroforesterie
Écosystème agricole
Thème
Acteurs locaux
Agriculture
Culture
Gestion des ressources forestières
L'intégration de la biodiversité
Défis
Perte de biodiversité
Manque d'autres possibilités de revenu
Manque de capacités techniques
Manque de sensibilisation du public et des décideurs
Manque de sécurité alimentaire
Chômage / pauvreté
Objectifs de développement durable
ODD 1 - Pas de pauvreté
ODD 2 - Faim "zéro"
ODD 3 - Bonne santé et bien-être
ODD 13 - Mesures relatives à la lutte contre les changements climatiques
ODD 15 - Vie terrestre
Objectifs d’Aichi
Objectif 1: Sensibilisation accrue de la biodiversité
Objectif 2: Valeurs de la biodiversité intégrées
Objectif 4: Production et consommation durables
Objectif 7: Agriculture, aquaculture et sylviculture durable
Objectif 8: Pollution réduite
Objectif 13: Sauvegarde de la diversité génétique
Objectif 14: Services des écosystèmes
Objectif 15: Restauration et la résilience des écosystèmes
Objectif 17: Stratégies de la biodiversité et des plans d'action
Objectif 18: Connaissances traditionnelles
Objectif 19: Partage de l'information et de la connaissance
Approches pour l’engagement des entreprises
Indirect à travers des gouvernements

Emplacement

Mizoram, India

Défis

  • Jhumming or the rotational agro forestry is the main landuse practice and the major source of food security and livelihood for the rural communities of Mizoram for centuries. This practice  is well adapted to this region creating cultural landscapes and has been found to preserve biodiversity and forest on a long term.  
  • In recent years, jhum has come under stress due to land use changes, shortening of jhum cycle, reduced fallow period, loss of soil fertility and reduced crop yield.Therefore there is an urgent need to align various ecosystem services with the rapid soicio economic transformation taking place in Mizoram.
  • Therefore to popularize the practice of jhum optimization and intensification by bringing in measures for increasing cultivation period i.e. fallow management to restore soil fertility, recharge soil moisture and underground water, creation of secondary forest and other subsidiary income as well as enhancing microbial actvities and maintain ecosystem were undertaken.

Bénéficiaires

Village council members and farmers of Khawrihnim village in Mizoram were the main beneficiaries. Besides them a Self help group and  government officials of forest department also benefitted from the programme.

Comment les blocs constitutifs interagissent-ils entre eux dans la solution?

  • The first building block helped to address the knowledge gap of the  local communities and land users by generating awareness about the importance of biodiversity conservation and its linkages to their livelihood and food security. 
  • The second building block made them to realize  that the measures of jhum optimization are just some kind of improvisation of the method which they were already practicing and by observing them being practiced by their counterpart in Nagaland helped them
    - to improve their knowledge, 
    - to gain confidence 
    - and to trigger practicing them back in their village.
  • After enhancement of their capacity, the third building block can effectively address the challenge, as  the local community depends upon the forest and its resources  for their livelihood and the need to conserve it by adopting various innovative practices of good jhuming.
  • Finally the solution will provide an oppurtunity to convince the government for mainstreaming jhum optimization measures and incorporate this in their policy.

Impacts

 

  • Awareness on biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management was generated among the government official, community leaders and farmers.
  • Interest among the farmers and community leaders to take up different jhum optimization measures in their jhum field was developed. 
  • The farmers started to conserve the forest tree seedlings and trees offshoots during weeding in their jhum field.
  • The department of forest environment and wild life exhibited interest and was ready to asses the villagers with ready to plant tree saplings.

 

Histoire

giz

 In Khawrihnim village the farmers were practicing Jhum for generations and cultivation of secondary crops, mixed and  intercropping of oilseeds, pulses, vegetables, spices and tubers  along with rice as the main crop were in the practice in the jhum field.Though the farmers were aware about the benefits of long fallow cycle and regeneration of forest, they were skeptical about the idea of continuing in the same Jhum plot in the second year as they feared drastic reduction of crop yield due to loss of soil fertility. Further, the village had never thought about it, as they were comfortable with utilizing the Jhum land only for a year as they had enough land in their disposal and presently their Jhum cycle was 9-10 years.

The village council authority and the farmers were convinced after the workshop  that little modification in their existing jhum system through jhum optimization measures would benefit them immensely  through increase in household income while conserving biodiversty and improving ecosystem service of the land users.

Contribué par

Portrait de dkchetri_38768

Dr.Dipak K. Chetri Consultant to GIZ