3.1 Diversification Away from Jhuming

The multiplicity of agrarian practices is one of the most conspicuous characteristics of present-day hill economies. There is a multitude of agrarian practices in the study area, where shifting agriculture was once the most dominant and the only agricultural practice, particularly before the 1960s.³⁴ Apart from traditional jhuming, one can also find non-paddy or vegetable-only jhum fields, wet rice cultivation, different types of horticulture, and fields for specific high-value crops such as chilli, turmeric, potato and ginger, as well as vegetable fields and kitchen gardens (Table 7.4).

This is perhaps best understood as diversification away from jhuming towards more market-friendly practices. Many of these practices, however, are minor modifications of traditional jhuming and closely resemble it in many respects, especially in field preparation. Horticulture has emerged out of the local practice of growing fruit trees, though government policies accelerated its growth. Wet rice cultivation is the only practice that was introduced top-down by the government, and has now become an intrinsic part of the hill economy.

In most villages, the importance of traditional jhuming has been overshadowed and even replaced by some of these new practices. In fact, as later discussions show, horticulture has become the most dominant practice in the study area in terms of the number of families involved. In areas with favourable terrain, wet rice cultivation is highly sought after as a reliable source of food security. It has become an integral part of three villages in the study area (Karuangmuan, Ijeirong and Bakuwa), with terraces dominating in Ijeirong.

Farmers have also built on existing practices, adapting them to suit the local ecology, adjusting to labour constraints and in response to market opportunities. Jhuming without paddy or only for vegetables is one of these new practices and is likely to become more popular. Potato cultivation by Akhui farmers and chilli cultivation by Shingra farmers are traditional practices which have intensified recently. However, turmeric cultivation in Bakuwa village and vegetable cultivation on the banks of the Barak river by Chiuluan farmers are new practices that have emerged in response to demand from the market.

Diversification can also be seen in the way in which farmers have started to cultivate multiple varieties of fields at the same time. Each household manages three fields and farms on average. Ijeirong farmers have a remarkable 3.4 plantations to add to two fields per household. This trend suggests that farmers no longer depend exclusively on shifting agriculture. This is perhaps what Ramakrishnan meant when he argued for diversification “to take the pressure off shifting agriculture.”³⁵

Across space, farmers with better access to markets (Chiuluan, Karuangmuan, Akhui) have diversified away from jhuming more than others (Shingra). Shingra is the only village in the study area where jhuming is more important than horticulture with 94 per cent of households still involved in it. As later discussions show, they are also more dependent on it. Even though a handful of households are experimenting with new practices, the bulk of their labour is still directed towards ensuring food security. By contrast, all other villages have more families involved in horticulture. Qualitatively though, the villages of Chiuluan, Karuangmuan and Akhui have benefitted most from diversification, aided by easy access to markets.

3.2 Mainstreaming of Horticulture

Perhaps the most distinctive marker of the shift away from jhuming is the way in which horticulture has become mainstream. It has overtaken jhuming to become the most prominent agrarian practice with more than 80 per cent of farming households managing at least one plantation across all the villages (Table 7.4). Many families have, in fact, moved out of jhuming to focus on horticulture. The economy of Karuangmuan village, for instance, is almost entirely based on banana plantations. Many salaried households have also invested in plantations with the aim of making a profit.

The almost ubiquitous presence of horticulture in the region is unique to the present. Fruit trees have always been an essential part of the home garden. In the past, growing fruit trees was a secondary activity that mainly completed the food basket and supplemented monetary income. However, the rise of urban centres of demand coupled with improved access to these areas, along with government incentives, have quickly propelled horticulture as the most important agrarian practice today.

This is highly significant because it marks a radical shift from producing to fulfil subsistence needs, as in traditional jhuming, to producing for the market for monetary income. Table 7.6 shows the distribution of plantations and horticultural farms by type. It provides a broad glimpse of the scale of horticulture in the study area. The cultivation of native species, such as orange, banana, and timber trees, is most common.³⁶ Cane is, however, native to and cultivated on a large scale only in Ijeirong village. Farmers are also experimenting with other varieties, mainly in response to demands from the market. For instance, galgal, also known as hill lemon (Citrus Pseudolimon), fetches a better price than oranges and has prompted many farmers to start cultivating it on a large scale. Other emerging varieties include pineapple, mango, litchi, jackfruit, heiribob (Citrus Latipes)³⁷ and gan-lwak.³⁸

The villages closest to the market (Chiuluan and Karuangmuan) also have the biggest orange orchards and banana plantations. While local climatic factors have played a role (oranges are favoured in the cooler climate of Chiuluan and bananas are favoured in the warmer climate of Karuangmuan), the growth of horticulture, especially that of banana plantations in Karuangmuan is best explained through the lens of market penetration. In fact, the growth of these two horticultural crops needs to be explored in some detail.

Oranges (Citrus Reticulata)³⁹ are native to Tamenglong⁴⁰ and have been grown for more than a hundred years.⁴¹ The seasonal nature of oranges (November to February) allows for easier marketing in the dry winter months when more labour is available. They were perhaps the most important horticultural crop in the past.⁴² Today, the state promotes horticulture as an alternative to jhuming by sponsoring the annual “Orange Festival” of Tamenglong. The incentives provided by the state, however, benefit those who have access to capital and market mainly due to the peculiarities of growing oranges.

It takes ten years or more for orange trees to mature before farmers can begin to get profitable returns. But orange trees are highly sensitive to weedicides and, therefore, require manual weeding three to four times a year. In a context where labour has become scarce due to the out-migration of youth, poor farmers are unable to manage large farms without extra labour. As a result, the salaried rich who have access to capital and can afford to hire wage labourers manage the biggest orchards. This is seen in Chiuluan village, which has the largest orange orchards in the study area (Table 7.6). Out of the sixteen families managing a minimum of five hundred orange trees, only four families actually depended on the orchard as a major source of income. The rest of the families were salaried, with the orange orchard as an investment for additional income and for profit. This translates to a gradual cementing of economic inequality in a society which has otherwise been known to be relatively egalitarian.

The banana plantations of Karuangmuan village give rise to a different challenge. Bananas have grown in popularity recently, as an alternative to oranges. Unlike oranges, banana cultivation provides returns within a year of planting. Bananas are also harvested throughout the year and are a consistent source of income. They have become highly sought after and are especially popular when market access is good.⁴³ This is exemplified by Karuangmuan village, where banana plantations exploded in the last ten years to replace shifting agriculture almost completely.

Many families manage plantations at a commercial scale with more than a thousand banana groves. These are managed with the widespread use of weedicides, such as “Roundup” by Bayer (earlier, Monsanto), and pesticides. The extensive use of these inputs levels the playing field by drastically reducing the need for labour to clear weeds. As a result, there is not too much difference in the economic profiles of families involved in banana plantations (Table 7.7). Those owning large banana plantations in the village included a construction worker, a mason and others engaged in private-sector jobs (private school, shops, etc.).

However, the traditional system of land rights and the process by which land is allocated for cultivation has been disregarded in favour of profit making from the plantations.⁴⁴ In addition, the large-scale use of the weedicide Roundup is bound to have implications for the health of the farmers⁴⁵ and the soil. While the long-term effects on the soil and local ecology are yet unknown, it appears that these are significant. Chiuluan and Akhui farmers report that the sustained use of Roundup hardens the soil and makes it unfit for cultivation – due to which they had given up its use. Regarding the short term, farmers from Karuangmuan report that Roundup softens the soil a few days after it has been sprayed. This has resulted in a few incidents of banana plants collapsing under their own weight on steeper slopes.

The orange orchards of Chiuluan village and the banana plantations of Karuangmuan village illustrate that horticulture has become mainstream. Most farmers are likely to shift away from traditional jhuming and into horticulture as roads improve and markets become more accessible. Agriculture in the region is likely to change in this direction. However, these developments also give rise to new challenges of socio-economic differentiation and ecological sustainability. In all likelihood, the current scenarios in Chiuluan and Karuangmuan are a precursor to change that will engulf the region in a short period of time.

3.3 From Subsistence Farming to Production for Market

The shift away from traditional jhuming can not only be seen in the changes outside the jhum field. It is also evident in the changing cropping patterns, specifically the diminishing role of paddy in the jhum field. In the past, food security was the primary motive for production, with almost all of the produce being consumed by the family. As farmers adapt to take advantage of market opportunities, this is no longer the case. Farmers’ priorities are being reordered in such a way that crops generating good monetary returns (vegetables) are increasingly preferred over those that ensure food security (cereals).

Paddy is no longer the most important crop in a jhum field, except in Shingra village. This can be seen both in terms of the quantity produced and the number of months it sustains a family.⁴⁶ A family in Shingra village produces an average of 145 tins of paddy, more than twice the amount of paddy produced by Chiuluan (sixty-nine tins) and Akhui (seventy tins) (Table 7.8). The paddy produced sustains a family for an average of almost eleven months for Shingra village and six months for Chiuluan village (Table 7.10).

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Jhum fields in Shingra village, 2016

Note: The wet rice fields of a neighbouring village along the banks of the iring river can be seen in the background. Shingra village has the largest jhum fields in the study area and produces the maximum quantity of paddy

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Shingra farmers cultivate paddy extensively due to the prohibitively high costs involved in buying and transporting rice from the market.⁴⁷ On the other hand, Chiuluan and Akhui farmers do not put as much emphasis on paddy production, as rice can be easily procured from the market. They focus more on growing market-friendly crops with high returns. Many farmers, especially in Chiuluan and Akhui village, explain that paddy is grown mainly out of concern for “health,”⁴⁸ taste, and to give “company” or “aid” in the growth of other high-value crops, such as chilli. In other words, in places with good access to markets, paddy has already taken a secondary role in the jhum field.

In villages such as Karuangmuan, Ijeirong and Bakuwa, where suitable terrain is available, the burden for paddy production is being shifted to wet rice fields (Table 7.9). Farmers prefer cultivating paddy in wet rice or terrace fields over jhum fields for a number of reasons: it is less labour-intensive both in field preparation and weeding, paddy production is more consistent over time, and paddy from wet rice fields is softer and tastier. Though suitable land for wet rice fields is scarce, the fields are central to the food security needs of the farmers who own them. For instance, the bulk of paddy that sustains Bakuwa farmers for 10.8 months is derived from wet rice paddy (tables 7.9, 7.10). In addition, 55 per cent of Karuangmuan households who cultivate wet rice paddy depend on it to provide food for 8.4 months (Table 7.10).

Table 7.10 suggests that the degree of market accessibility determines whether farmers produce for the market or for subsistence. In villages with good market access (Chiuluan, Akhui and Karuangmuan), at least 70 per cent of families depend on the market for food. By contrast, when markets are relatively difficult to access (Ijeirong, Bakuwa and Shingra) farmers prioritise being self-sufficient in food production (67 per cent of families and above), through jhum, wet rice cultivation or a combination of both.

With reference to the Southeast Asian context, Cramb et al. note that there are two stages of transition from subsistence to production for the market.⁴⁹ The first stage involves farmers using spare land and labour to produce for the market – a characteristic of Shingra, Bakuwa and Ijeirong farmers. The second stage involves using spare land and labour for subsistence – found in Chiuluan and Karuangmuan village, and to an extent in Akhui village. In the study area, however, both stages seem to be at work simultaneously, mediated by unequal access to markets.

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Graph showing the income of jhum farmers from different villages

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The obvious advantage of generating income from jhuming in villages close to the market is reflected in Figure 7.4.⁵⁰ The huge gap in earnings amongst the villages can be properly appreciated in the context of Table 7.4 (which details the number of families engaged in jhuming) and Table 7.8 (which shows the production of paddy). A typical jhum farmer from Chiuluan village earns almost five times more cash than his counterpart in Shingra village with a larger field (even though Shingra farmers produce twice as much paddy; see Table 7.8). A closer analysis reveals that farmers from Chiuluan and Akhui village sell mostly vegetables and other perishable goods. By contrast, Shingra farmers mostly sell non-perishable goods such as ash gourd, dried beans and dried chilli in the dry winter months.⁵¹

The changing role of the jhum field as a source of income is captured by the story of Mrs Kambuiliu Gangmei (forty-three years old), a jhum farmer from Chiuluan village. Her work cycle incorporates both farming and marketing, as she takes on the dual role of a farmer as well as a vegetable vendor in Tamenglong bazaar. Prior to the weekly “market day,”⁵² she harvests crops that can be sold at the market. These include green leaves, vegetables, maize and chilli, depending on the season. After returning home, she organises and arranges the vegetables, preparing them for sale the next day. On the “market day” she makes her way to the market at dawn. In the past, she would walk along with other women, but commercial vehicles that started plying the route recently bring her to the market in minutes. By eight o’clock in the morning, she has either finished selling her vegetables or sold the unsold ones to a retailer at a wholesale rate. After arriving back home and refreshing herself, she heads to her field where she spends half the day tending to it. The other half is spent in gathering crops and vegetables that can be sold the next day. This routine is repeated throughout the year with variations depending on the peaks and troughs of labour requirements.

Over the course of the whole season (2017–2018), Mrs Gangmei earned approximately seventy thousand rupees from the jhum field alone. This was more than twice the value of the 160 tins of paddy that she harvested the same year.⁵³ This weekly, if not daily, income from the sale of jhum vegetables pays the school fees for her children and helps run the family. It also goes without saying that the field provided for the kitchen needs of the family throughout the year. As jhum produce becomes “marketable,” a subsistence form of agriculture has completely transformed into a viable source of income. It is for this reason that Chiuluan women folk often say that “we have raised our children by selling vegetables …”

By contrast, the farmers of Shingra village are forced to sell mostly non-perishable items at the end of the year to traders who come to the village and buy from the farmers at wholesale rates. Hence, it is very common to hear Shingra farmers lamenting the terrible condition of the roads time and time again. Easy access to markets means that shifting agriculture is becoming increasingly cash oriented. In fact, farmers are innovating in order to take advantage of the new opportunities by introducing non-traditional crops, including hybrid varieties, in their jhum fields. At the same time, the lack of access means that Shingra farmers continue to jhum in the traditional way. Agrarian change in the Northeastern hills of India is likely to fall somewhere between these two extremes.

4.1 Unravelling Institutions and Ramifications

Traditional institutions that regulated shifting agriculture have come under great strain. Changing agricultural practices inform changing ideas of land and resources and, therefore, necessarily have a bearing on the efficacy of traditional institutions.⁵⁴ The fault lines are visible in the study area, where a special provision of the Constitution of India (Article 371C) allows villages to manage resources according to their traditional norms and customs.

First, as agriculture becomes market driven, it also becomes more privatised. This is more evident in horticulture, which is transitioning into a capital-intensive practice. Increased privatisation, in turn, usually involves the side-stepping of traditional practices in favour of greater returns from the land. As communal safeguards are set aside to ensure profit making, communities are in danger of descending into a cycle of unsustainable resource use and exploitation. This can have long-term repercussions both on the local ecology and society. Such a scenario is highly likely in Karuangmuan village.

Second, property rights regimes, which are generally a mix of communal-private ownership and management, are being reworked comprehensively. This is largely driven by the emergence of the permanent and semi-permanent land use systems of wet rice cultivation and horticulture. In most such cases, communal control is becoming redundant as the rights of individuals become more pronounced. This, in turn, is excluding farmers who do not own land from certain agrarian practices. It must be pointed out here that farmers regularly “borrow” plots of land for shifting agriculture.⁵⁵ However, this is not extended to plantations or wet rice fields, as they involve more permanent use of land.

Thus, commercial and increasingly capital-intensive agriculture is effectively restructuring society. For example, the largest owners of orange farms in Chiuluan village or Akhui village are government employees who are able to hire labour and invest in inputs. This trend is found across the board in all the villages to varying degrees. One can observe the gradual concretisation of socio-economic inequality in these once egalitarian societies. This is bound to have long-term social and ecological side effects because effective management of communal resources is not possible in a community where every member does not have an equal stake.

Third, the current study has also found cases in which traditional institutions have not evolved to meet the challenges brought on by changing agrarian practices. For instance, the system of annually demarcating areas for the purpose of shifting agriculture is not done for cultivating chilli fields (Shingra village) and turmeric fields (Bakuwa village), unlike in Akhui village, which regularly sets aside the colder, mountainous regions for potato fields. This leaves a lot of ambiguity, which farmers can exploit to their own benefit and to the detriment of the environment. Both chilli and turmeric require fresh fields every year and will most likely result in the increased fragmentation of forests in the absence of any regulation.

Fourth, institutional efficacy is also often undermined by internal contradictions, which get further accentuated by market forces, including global capital. In the region where the present study was conducted, disputes that sometimes turn bloody and lengthy legal battles over ownership rights to land and resources are not uncommon. This is exacerbated by the fact that traditional rights are oral and unwritten and, therefore, open to interpretation and manipulation. Karuangmuan village had a protracted and acrimonious dispute between two clans over landownership. While the inner contestations were always present, it was triggered in 2006 when monetary compensation was announced for constructing railway tracks and a platform on the village land. The dispute resulted in a severe erosion of social capital represented by a split in the church, amongst other things.

The direct fallout of this dispute is that Karuangmuan village has not been able to continue with the traditional system of ramrai nu, in which the village council identifies land to be cultivated in a particular year. The situation is further exacerbated by the desire to cultivate as many banana plantations as possible. As a result, farmers are given a free hand to “open up” forests for all kinds of agrarian activity without any sort of community-imposed checks. While this may lead to short-term individual profit, it will most certainly lead to significant ecological problems later.

While the inner contestations played out in the open in the case of Karuangmuan village, there is simmering tension in almost every village. These situations threaten to get out of control and disrupt the social fabric from time to time, especially with respect to the allocation, extraction and exploitation of resources. Another potential trigger, which adds to institutional strain, is the construction of the World Bank-funded Asian Highway passing through Ijeirong and Bakuwa village.

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The constitution of Chiuluan village

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Proactive communities and villages have sought to minimise conflict and confusion by drafting traditional rules and regulations in the form of a village constitution. Chiuluan village has written a constitution that clearly defines the norms that govern resource use. During the fieldwork, Bakuwa village was actively deliberating writing one such document. Such initiatives hint at the huge gap between constitutional provisions granting traditional institutions the right to manage their own resources and the challenges faced by local institutions in adapting to the changing socio-economic contexts driven by the market and, in some cases, by global capital.

4.2 The Ecological Consequences of Commercial Agriculture

The current agrarian changes have affected the environment in two important ways. First, the changes have led to a loss of species diversity. Second, in the context of ineffective institutions, they have led to increased forest fragmentation and the overexploitation of available land and resources. The new, “cash-oriented” nature of shifting agriculture is leading to crop specialisation; and farmers have become particularly focused on producing crops with a high market value. The increasing number of fields dedicated to specific high-value crops points to this trend. Farmers are cultivating less of a variety of crops as they focus on marketability.

As a result, the genetic pool, represented by the diversity of seeds, is becoming depleted, as crops that are no longer sown are lost forever. This reduced crop diversity is clearly visible in farming communities that live closer to the market. For instance, jhum paddy is almost extinct in Karuangmuan village. Even in Chiuluan village, where paddy continues to be grown, only three varieties of paddy were reported by the majority of respondents. By contrast, Shingra farmers have a rich pool of over twenty varieties of paddy, not to mention other crops.

The shrinking gene pool is perhaps one of the most significant fallouts of agrarian change in the hills. However, not enough attention has been given to it. It is an invaluable loss, which compromises the resilience of the shifting agricultural system and negatively impacts farmers’ food and livelihood security. It makes fields more vulnerable to pests and weeds, while exposing farmers to market uncertainties and climatic variations at the local level. At the macro level, the loss of species severely impacts efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Second, the emergence of intensive commercial cultivation is likely to lead to the overexploitation and fragmentation of forests. Banana plantations in Karuangmuan village are causing pressure due to a combination of unrestricted access to forest land and the widespread use of weedicides in the plantations. As farmers prefer plantations close to the village for easy transportation, these are situated in a five-kilometre radius from the village. Land close to the village is thus in danger of overexploitation in a few years’ time, as farmers have to shift to a new plot every three to five years. The likelihood of ecological challenges in the near future is exacerbated by the fact that farmers extensively employ weedicides, such as Roundup by Bayer (Monsanto), in managing banana plantations. As mentioned earlier, the commercialisation of banana plantations has been made possible by the widespread use of labour-saving techniques such as weedicides and pesticides. However, these have implications on the health and well-being of farmers as well as the environment.

The pace of forest fragmentation is also being hastened by the cultivation of turmeric, chilli and potatoes. Though the fields on which these crops are grown are usually smaller in size, they are not cultivated over compact areas, like the traditional jhum fields. In addition, they require fresh plots every year. In fact, farmers report that a plot of land used to grow turmeric cannot be used to grow any other crop in the next two to three years, as soil fertility is completely exhausted. In case of king chilli, farmers seek plots of land which have not been cleared for ten years or more.

The full impact of commercial farming and plantations on the environment and, in certain cases, the health of farmers is yet to be fully known. Many practices have emerged only in the last few years. However, in their wake, fragile and sensitive ecologies have come under extreme pressure. Across the board, there is a loss of crop diversity. Additionally, in cases where local traditional institutions are rendered ineffective, the environment is left to the mercy of private interests. In a context where property rights regimes are not well defined, the overexploitation of available land and resources, leading to long-term environmental degradation, is highly likely.⁵⁶