Sunday, October 11, 2009

Shifting Cultivation......!!!!!



These are some of the landscapes you can see in and around Meghalaya. Traditionally, the farmers here they say, mostly follow the art of Shifting Cultivation , also called " Jhum Cultivation " mainly because of the hilly terrain . They would cut down the trees and shrubs in a particular area, burn them and this would act like a manure for what ever they would cultivate for the year. Next year they would shift to another part and follow the same pattern. This , mainly because the soil in the same place loses its fertility and the cultivation is no longer as fruitful as the first year. But it is said that this method of cultivation is discouraged because apart from being out dated, a lot of forest area has to be cleared and the land becomes barren. It usually takes a long time for the soil to recover and be ready for another cultivation. The two most important crops usually cultivated is rice and maize.

10 comments:

AS said...

hii!

yaar u r soo lucky to live in a natural place like shillong! the natural beauty is mesmerizing :D

here in metros, the traffic jams are just soo scary!

Cheryl said...

Interesting to learn of cultivation in other lands.

Patty said...

Very interesting post.

Great Grandma Lin said...

interesting practices...we'd be in trouble if we all had to grow our own food.

Gerald (SK14) said...

sounds rather like the crop rotation that used take place here. We want things too fast these days.

R. Ramesh said...

very good post dr journalist..cheers

Chris said...

this reminds me of what I hear about the rain forest. The rain forest doesn't have very many nutrients in the soil, actually most of it lies on top of the soil. So farmers move in, and cut down trees to clear some land. Then when that land has lost all of it's nutrients, they move on to another piece of land, and cut down more trees.

I forget which country that borders that rain forest who does this, but this is still in practice today.

Great info thanks for sharing :)

Closed eyes... said...

It would be so amazing to live in place like that (: Life in a METRO could suck real bad at times :/

Love the intro of yours and thanks so much for dropping by at my blog (:

Ankita said...

hii Dr Nitu

happy diwali to u and ur family :D

Urmi said...

Excellent post.
Wish you and your family a very happy and prosperous Diwali.