Abstract:

Shifting cultivation commonly known as slash and burn agriculture is an age-old traditional agricultural practice in Nagaland. The system involves cultivation of crops on steep slopes by cutting of forests, bushes, etc., up to the stump level, leaving the cutmaterials for drying and final burning to make the land ready for dibbling of seeds of different crops before the onset of rains and grow crops 2-3 years till yield become uneconomical. Once the land becomes inadequate for crop production, it is left to be reclaimed by natural vegetation for years to recuperate and a new piece of land is then selected to repeat the process. The periodicity after which cultivation is again taken up in the Jhum land is called Jhum cycle.