The report of the steering committee on empowering the SCs for the 10th five year plan talked about ‘an urgent need to expand agricultural extension programmes in the tribal areas to wean the tribals away from unremunerative agricultural practices and training them, especially the youth, in the application of modern methods and techniques and other inputs towards achieving more remunerative agricultural production; develop coarse grains seeds with longer shelf-life; and higher yields; improve the productivity of their agriculture with better inputs, expose them to diversified agriculture; use of hybrid seeds for increased production; organic manure and improved farming practices to utilize the bio-mass available in tribal areas etc. and accelerate the pace of settlement of shifting cultivation.’
This in short reflects the ignorance of policy planners with regard to traditional knowledge systems and agricultural practices in the hills of the northeastern region. The practice of jhumming or ‘slash and burn’ technique has been attracting lots of criticism from experts ranging from agronomists to policy makers since colonial times. Lord Baden Powell had termed this practice as wasteful and evil in 1883. Ever since, this practice has become the target of varied experts. They put all the blame for environmental degradation and extensive soil erosion on this traditional practice which in fact is a way of life for the hill peoples of the northeast. The Indian state carried forward the official policy of the British with regard to jhumming. In their effort to commercialize Indian agriculture they evolve plans to weed out all forms of self-subsistence farming including jhum cultivation. The anti-jhum discourse dubs jhumming as primitive, uneconomical and non scientific practice. They also say that short jhum cycle has led to loss of sustainable agriculture in the hills. They advocate the imposition of an alternative model without any appreciation of the traditional knowledge systems of the hill people while also neglecting the need for improving the traditional practice within their cultural framework. The Indian planners called it ‘unremunerative agricultural practice’ and feel the urgent need to wean away the tribals from it. They are talking about developing coarse grain seeds with longer shelf-life, higher yield, hybrid seeds and diversified agriculture. How patronizing, indeed. The white man’s burden has become the brown man’s burden to civilize the ‘tribal’ population and their ‘primitive’ practices. They simply do not understand that the hill people know the lay of the land and its productivity through experiences gathered in course of time. The precious flora and fauna that had survived the test of time would be disturbed with the introduction of exotic seeds or hybrid seeds. Why must the hills and its peoples pay for their ignorance? Yet all are not ignorant and some understood the logic behind the practice. In 1952, a senior forest official had advocated accepting it not as a necessary evil but recognizing it as a agricultural practice evolved as a reflex to the physiographic character of the land. Nehru’s advisor on tribal affairs Verrier Elwin had opined that modern science should help the tribal economy without destroying it. Jhumming is very closely associated with the culture and tradition of the people practicing it. The rites performed before, during the process, sowing, harvesting and storage to appease the benevolent god depicts the association of jhumming with the culture. The hill communities have a very close dependence on biological resources. Their livelihood and life style often depends upon and is shaped by these resources. Therefore, their survival and sustenance is intricately linked to conservation and utilisation of these resources. Shifting cultivation in the state has been the mode of occupation and means of livelihood for the hill people since time immerorial. Therefore any effort to find a solution to this vexed problem must involve the Jhumias and the approach must be Jhum centric. The participatory approach, traditional ecological knowledge, traditional institutions, and local innovations in farming technology must be taken into consideration while designing suitable alternative models. In short, shifting cultivation is no way an evil for the Jhumias but a practice which have engraved deeply in socio-culture and to economy to sustain livelihood. All it needs is some improvisation and regulation.