Jess T Murry
Chairman, Green-SONS
The result of cumulative activities of farmers, households and industries, all trying to improve their socio-economic well being has tend to be counterproductive for several reasons. People may not completely understand the long term consequences of their activities on the natural resource base. The most important ways in which human activity is interfering with the global ecosystem are; a) fossil burning which may double the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration by the middle of the present century, as well as further increasing the emission of sulphur and nitrogen very significantly.
b) Expanding agriculture and forestry and associated use of fertilizers (nitrogen and phosphorus) are significantly alerting the natural circulation of these nutrients.
c) Increase exploitation of the freshwater system both for irrigation in agriculture and industries and for waste disposal.
Nagaland in the North East India (93.20°-95.15E and 25.60°-26.40°N) is considered to be one of the world's biodiversity hotspot, containing the most northern evergreen wet forest on hill terrains at an altitude between 195 to 3, 826m. Its population of about 2 millions lives in eleven Districts and consists to 89% of Naga belonging to 16 different tribes. 59% of the population depends on slash and burnt/shifting/jhum cultivation. Average rainfall in Nagaland ranges from 2,000 to 3,000mm and us unimodally distributed from May to October, mean monthly temperature ranges from 16-31°C while in winter (October to February) it varies from 4-24°C.
Situated in the North East of India, Nagaland is one of the most remotest and secluded state in the subcontinent. After the World War II, it was declared a restricted area, for which access regulation were lifted only in 1997. Since then, only few studies on the cultural and traditions of the Naga people we're published and even less is known about the productivity of the local land use system and people's food security.
Considering on the context of Wokha district the population increased from 1,61,223 in 2001 to 1,6 6334 in 2011(census of 2011) leading to a population density of 103 person per Square Km. To satisfy food needs the growing population the fallow period has been reduced to about Six years at present. During the last decade’s most of the remaining forest land was converted into shifting cultivation area which included slopes of more than 100%.Classified dense forest may be recorded to about only 9%.
Little is known about the agricultural productivity and rural communities food security in Nagaland where high population growth leads to increasingly shorter fallow period and a reported decline in soil productivity. This problem is particularly severe in Wokha district of Nagaland, where 73% of the population depends on shifting cultivation and the duration of the fallow period has been reduced from 15 years in the last decade to 6 years at present. The present study was done in two villages, Menshangben and Tsopo of Wokha district, to quantify the gap between the local farmers' demand in cereals and the amount harvested from their slash and burnt fields. Datas are based on comprehensive interview on household size, food consumption, crop yields, duration of fallow period and on the determination of field sizes over two years.
The result indicates that per capita of field size available for cultivation averaged 1,800Sq.m in Menshangben and 1,100 Sq.m in Tsopo. Per adult the daily caloric intake from harvested cereals such as rice(Prize sativa L.), millet (pennisetum glaucoma L.), Maize(Zealand Mays L.) Was in Menshangben, 12,200 Kj in 2018 compared to 9,100 Kj in 2017 whereas in Tsopo these values were lower at 7,500 Kj. On an average the harvests of 2017 allowed to feed an average household for nine and half months in Menshangben and for nine months in Tsopo. Hence, during this year in both the villages one quarter of the needed cereals had to be purchased from outside in order to fill a village level food gap of 140 tones of rice in Menshangben and 320 tones of rice in Tsopo. This already delicate food situation is further aggravated by an annual population growth of 6%.
Given the rapid population increase and the continued predominance of shifting cultivation, Nagaland is suited to analyse the relationship between demographic factors and the fulfillment of basic subsistence needs; cereal production and fuel wood collection and the ensuing effects on forests and soil degradation. Based on the field survey conducted in two contrasting villages in 2017-2018 the study compares human demands for cereals and fuel woods with actual crop yields and discusses the results in the light of literature data. In this way the carrying capacity of jhum system in this specific region is determined, consequences of the typical low grain yields from shifting cultivation on food availability are analysed and potential adaptation strategies to increasing resource degradation and scarcity are elaborated.
The disappearance of natural resources damages an area and limits its ability to sustain a population. The population could be of trees, animals or even people. Often these damages are the result of beneficial activities performed irresponsibly. Degradation of natural resources often has a chain effect. For example, rampant deforestation in a way of jhuming, logging and coal mining at Bagthy valley has reduced the habitat of the wild elephant which has escalated the human-elephant conflicts which has led to the lost of lives and properties forcing the local farmers to abandon their field in some cases. And this is a persistent phenomenon in this area. Haphazard deforestation also isolates plants and animals from their own species which in fewer option leads to inbreeding, weakening the gene pool. Larger species, usually predators, are especially vulnerable to population loss simply because they are few of them. A bad breeding year, a natural disaster or a disease can wipe them out. On a global scale, deforestation contributes to a buildup of greenhouse gases; fewer trees mean more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The effects of deforestation includes; A) Direct effects, which are caused by the action and occurs at the same time and place. B) Indirect effects, which are caused by the action and are later in time or further removed in distance, that are still reasonably foreseeable. Under the onslaught of an ever increasing human population, it has become clear that humanity and world's environment and ecosystems are under serious threat. However in the past and present, when people are in desperate need, they have little choice but to exploit nature to the fullest abilities and technologies.
It is when only these challenges are met that we but shall have a better understanding of whether and why rural dwellers depletes their natural resources. In particular, what is the exact responsibility of the type of strategic interactions Subsumed in the tragedy of the common model as compared with other potential explanations, such as lack of awareness or knowledge about ecological effects of human efforts, heavy discounting if future income steams, uncertainty regarding future prices of CPR products, uncertainty about future property rights, ambiguous impact of output price increase on conservation practices, availability of more attractive income opportunities? This questions needs to receive precise answers if we want to define the most appropriate solutions to end situations in which the lots of future generations are dangerously threatened.
However, people are gaining a better understanding that one system can't operate at the expense of the other. Conservation if natural resources has become a priority for business and government which tout sustainability as a way time strike a balance between helping the environment and preventing economic or personal hardship.
