Towards the Sustainable Management of Problematic Soils in Northeast India
The northeast region is unique in its diversity of climate, crops and people. Jhum cultivation is prevalent in the region for food production and sustaining livelihood. One major constraint in sustainable crop production is problem soils, those soils whic
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Rakesh Kumar and Vijay Singh Meena
Abstract
The northeast region is unique in its diversity of climate, crops and people. Jhum cultivation is prevalent in the region for food production and sustaining livelihood. One major constraint in sustainable crop production is problem soils, those soils which have serious physical and chemical limitations to crop cultivation. The North Eastern Hill (NEH) region is having monocropping with low levels of production in agriculture for sustaining the livelihood of poor tribal farmers. Reports revealed that 76.6 t/ha/year of soil is lost with practising of traditional jhum farming. Soil erosion with jhum cultivation having slope (60–70 %) in the first, second and third year as an abandoned was recorded 147, 170 and 30 t/ha/ year, respectively. The region is having mostly problems of land degradation, acidity and severe erosion because of existing jhum farming by tribal farmers. The severe soil acidity problems (pH 1200 m, ~18 % between 600 and 1200 m and ~11 % between 300 and 600 m amsl. The two-third of area (~72 %) of this region lies in hilly terrains. The plains area of the region mainly falls in Brahmaputra and Barak valleys, which are subjected to extreme inundation. Manipur has an area of 1853 km2 and Tripura plains with 3500 m2, and both are facing the problems of erosiveness. Annual rainfall of ~2450 mm is received in the region, which is mainly contributed by the southwest monsoon. The farmers of this region are mostly practising jhum and some extent of settled cultivation, which is permanent in nature. Permanent or settled cultivation is mostly adopted in plains, valleys, foothills and terrace but jhumming is prevalent in the hilly terrain of the north-eastern states except Sikkim. Tribal farmers of the region are practising crop production with an altitude of ~3600 m and having slopes of ~60 %. Most of the agricultural area is used for food grain, and rice contributes ~90 % of the total food grain acreage. The agriculture ecosystem in the region is mainly at subsistence level, and the region as a whole faces a deficit of 1.6 MT of food grains. This region is characterised by heavy soil erosion, loss of soil fertility and deforestation causing acute environmental degradation and severe ecological imbalance. Over 600 MT of soil accompanied by 1.5 MT of nutrients (NPK) gets eroded every year due to steep slopes in the region and negligence of rainwater. A greater frequency of highintensity rainfall can further increase these losses. Soil acidity is also one of the biggest impediments to crop productivity in the region that are prevalent. Thus, there is an urgent need to prioritise development and implementation of various ways to manage the soil, water conservation and best management practices such as rainwater harvesting, improvement of irrigation potential, soil erosion control, balanced or adequate fertilisation, soil organic matter improvement, acidity amelioration and conservation agriculture to improve climate resilience of north-eastern agriculture. The phy
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