NESFAS disappointed by MP’s move to speak against jhum cultivation

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaOctober 22, 2021

The North East Slow Food & Agrobiodiversity Society (NESFAS) has expressed disappointment over the Shillong MP Vincent H Pala’s decision to raise the impacts of jhum cultivation at the upcoming 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) to be held in Glasgow next month.

In a statement issued on Friday, the NESFAS said “The MP therefore may want to update his position and rethink his arguments calling for replacement of shifting cultivation – such a move will actually add to global warming rather than mitigate it.”

It said just a month ago, the 2021 World Sustainability Report Award was given to the publication entitled ‘Indigenous Peoples’ food systems: Insights on sustainability and resilience from the front line of climate change’ which was is the result of a collaboration between FAO and the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) along with several Universities, Research centres and local Indigenous Peoples organizations (which includes NESFAS).

It said the book has the case study of the food system in Nongtraw, East Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, which is based on jhum/shifting cultivation.

The study found that based on the methodology adopted for assessing resilience to Climate Change the food system in Nongtraw was found to be resilient in 10 out of the 13 indicators. In other words Jhum based food system is highly resilient to climate change.

Recently, NESFAS conducted a Household Food Insecurity Access Scale Survey (FHIAS) in 18 villages of Meghalaya and Nagaland whose food system is based on jhum.

Moderate and Severe food insecurity was found to be only 11% while the corresponding number for South Asia was 43%.

“This highlighted the confirmed the resilience of the jhum-based food system this time against the shocks created by Covid-19 pandemic. Jhum-based food system is resilient to both natural and human stress making it crucial for food security and sustainability,” NESFAS said.

It said that the importance of jhum cultivation for food security and sustainability was in fact also mentioned in the 2018 NITI Ayog, ‘Report of Working Group III Shifting Cultivation: Towards a Transformational Approach’.

Some of the main policy level suggestions made in the aforementioned report are: garnering authentic data on jhum, improved land use planning, amend credit guidelines to allow jhum cultivators access financial resources and most importantly categorise jhum “…as distinct land use, recognizing that it is both an agricultural and forest management practice conducted on the same plot of land but at sequentially separated times.”

The last point is very important because it shifts the debate from jhum destroying forests to actually being very valuable to ecosystem services because of its landscape management approach. In fact the report mentions that drying of water sources, decline in soil fertility, reduced availability of fuel wood, fodder and wild edibles are the outcome of replacement of jhum by agricultural intensification. The fallows under jhum in fact should be categorized, the report states, as ‘regenerating fallows’ which in time will become secondary forests and add to the forest cover of an area. The paper, ‘The impacts of shifting cultivation on tropical forest soil: a review’ by Alexandre Antunes Ribeiro Filho, Cristina Adams, Rui Sergio Sereni Murrieta did a review on the last 30 years of work done on the impact of shifting cultivation on tropical soils.

The studies reviewed revealed that under Shifting Cultivation, the soil properties of tropical forests vary from the moment an area is opened up for planting (conversion) to the end of a cultivation and fallow cycle. More than 90% of the studies conclude that the practise does not compromise soil quality and is a sustainable system, adapted to the ecological conditions of the tropical forests where this system is practised provided long fallow period is practised.

Another negative outcome of the decline of jhum is increased food insecurity. The 2018 NITI Ayog report also mentions that in order to manage jhum, government schemes have mostly prioritized cereal and plantation crops causing a reduction in diversity of crops. This has severely limited availability of food crops and compromised food availability during the gestation periods leading to food insecurity. Research done by NESFAS found that there is an average of 200 food plants from a single village in Meghalaya and Nagaland, half of which in many villages can come from jhum.

These are again climate resilient and micro-nutrient species. Our Chairperson Bah Phrang Roy has been invited to speak in the COP26 sessions where he will be talking on the issue of supporting IFS which includes shifting cultivation for combating climate change. In this regard it is important to mention that the reporting of the findings by NESFAS has in fact strengthened FAO’s commitment to shifting cultivation.

There are of course areas that need to be strengthened and FAO is planning to give a small grant to NESFAS for a nature based restoration pilot initiative in 5 villages which will include strengthening the fire management system found in shifting cultivation.