Assessment of shifting cultivation dynamics in East Garo Hills District, Meghalaya, India

Riahtam, N B; Nongkynrih, Jenita M.; Sarma, K. K.; Raju, P. L. N.; Mishra, Ashish Kumar; Lal, Deepak; Kharsahnoh, A M; Sahkhar, D J

doi:10.1088/1755-1315/169/1/012104

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Secondary forests are a result of shifting cultivation left fallow for regeneration. In the past, shifting cultivation was the main source of livelihood for the Garo people inhabiting the district (Riahtam et al, 2018). At present, many farmers are transitioning to a settled form of cultivation.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Farmers’ Income and the Driving Forces for the Switch from Shifting Cultivation to Settled Agriculture in Meghalaya, India

Nonglait,

Khundrakpam,

Deka

2024

Caraka Tani J. Sustain. Agric.

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This study assesses the dependence of farmers on semi-settled (a combination of shifting and settled cultivation) and settled agriculture as a source of family income. The farmers residing in the hilly tracts of West Garo Hills mostly adopt semi-settled cultivation. Farmers are also transitioning from semi-settled to settled agriculture. This study was conducted to investigate the factors influencing the transition and the socioeconomic conditions of farmers practicing semi-settled and settled agriculture. The researchers surveyed 119 randomly selected households in West Garo Hills, a district of Meghalaya, India, using a structured questionnaire. Exploration of influencing factors for transitioning is important to provide insights into how factors interact, thereby facilitating the development of effective adaptation strategies and policies that will ensure farmers’ future well-being. Results showed that settled farmers generate more income and possess more land area than semi-settled farmers. Besides available land area, a stable source of income for a family is a strong determinant for abandoning shifting cultivation and transitioning to settled agriculture to boost income with less time investment and labor. The farmers found that shifting cultivation helped meet their dietary needs and some income during the COVID-19 lockdown. Alongside efforts to boost commercial agriculture, the government should also assist farmers with limited resources in transitioning to settled agriculture by building market networks for the goods produced from shifting cultivation.

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Farmers’ Income and the Driving Forces for the Switch from Shifting Cultivation to Settled Agriculture in Meghalaya, India

Nonglait,

Khundrakpam,

Deka

2024

Caraka Tani J. Sustain. Agric.

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“…For example, slash and burn agriculture is a common agricultural practice in several upland regions, including Meghalaya, where vegetation in a forest area is cut and burnt to grow food. After harvesting, the land remains fallow and can recover its natural vegetation cover (Riahtam et al., 2018), with this recovery period usually needing 15 years or more. However, due to socio‐economic conditions, the land often gets only one or 2 years to recover, and thus the burnt land cannot remain under vegetative cover and degrades relatively quickly, accelerating both land degradation and soil erosion.…”

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Do Vulnerable People in Bangladesh Experience Environmental Stress From Sedimentation in the Haor Wetlands? An Exploratory Study

Islam

Haq

Ahmed

et al. 2022

Water Resources Research

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Introduction and BackgroundThe haor landscape (Figure 1) comprises a large, shallow tectonic depression in the northeastern part of Bangladesh that becomes inundated to a depth of 5 m or more during the monsoonal annual rainy season. Haor covers an area of approximately 2 million hectares (19,998 km 2 ) and supports a population of 19.37 million people (Chakraborty et al., 2021;Kamal et al., 2018). The haor basin is actively subsiding, and its hydrological, topographical, geomorphological, and socioeconomic features are distinctive as compared to other parts of Bangladesh (Chakraborty, Mondal, et al., 2012;IUCN, 2015). The geology of the haor basin consists of 13-20 km thick alluvial and deltaic deposits underlain by gneisses and granites, and the basin is bounded by the Shillong Plateau to the north (Figure 1), the Indo-Burman Range to the east, and the Indian Shield to the west. Non-calcareous, non-saline gray alluvium and acidic, alkaline clays are the most common soils within the basin (DBHWD, 2017), which is predominantly topographically flat but possesses some low hills that are covered with rainforest, tea and rubber plantations. The haor is very close to the towns of Cherrapunji (Figure 1) and Mawsynram, which are considered to be the rainiest places in the world, with an average annual rainfall of 11,755 mm and an average rainfall of 1,700 and 7,400 mm in the pre-and post-monsoon seasons, respectively (Basher et al., 2018;Rahman et al., 2020). As a result, the haor region receives significant runoff from 23 small transboundary rivers, including the Surma-Baulai, Kalni-Kushiyara, and Kangsa-Dhanu rivers, which originate in the hill regions of neighboring India. Seventy percent of the total catchment area of these rivers depends on three Indian States: Meghalaya, Assam, and Tripura (CEGIS, 2012). This abundant runoff enables the annual flooding of the haor region (Figure 2) to depths of 5-7 m, and much of the area is thus characterized by regular yearly inundation.

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Long-Term Temporal Land Analysis of Agricultural Land and Shifting Cultivation Detection

Thakkar

Suthar

Patel

et al. 2022

Proceedings of Second International Conference on Advances in Computer Engineering and Communication Systems

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Assessment of shifting cultivation dynamics in East Garo Hills District, Meghalaya, India

Cited by 7 publications

References 25 publications

Farmers’ Income and the Driving Forces for the Switch from Shifting Cultivation to Settled Agriculture in Meghalaya, India

Farmers’ Income and the Driving Forces for the Switch from Shifting Cultivation to Settled Agriculture in Meghalaya, India

How Do Vulnerable People in Bangladesh Experience Environmental Stress From Sedimentation in the Haor Wetlands? An Exploratory Study

Long-Term Temporal Land Analysis of Agricultural Land and Shifting Cultivation Detection

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