Shifting cultivation in garo hills
The shifting cultivation or swiden
agriculture is the primitive form of soil utilization, usually of tropical rain forests and bush areas of Central Africa, Central America and Southeast Asia. The farmers grow food only for his family in this agriculture system.
Jhum calendar Months Events January Removal of forest stubbles (A·breng danga),
harvesting of Colocassia
and tubers.
February Hoeing (A·ba wita), harvesting of sweet potato.
March Burning the dried stubbles into ashes (A·ba soa), sowing of upland
paddy.
April First weeding and protection of crops or fencing (A·ba danga), sowing of
vegetable crops.
May First weeding continued.
June Second intercultural operation (Bamil gama).
July – August Harvesting of paddy, pumpkin, cucurbits, Brinjal, chilli etc.
September Removal of unwanted paddy straws by cutting.
October Harvesting of pea, sponge gourd, etc.
November Harvesting of colocassia, cassava, etc.
December Harvesting of Ginger, Til, Cotton, etc. and selection of site next year and
clearing of forest tract by cutting down the jungle.
Almost all over the garo hills, especially in the hilly tracts, agriculture operations in
shifting cultivation are marked by the following stages:
The usual process demands the selection of a plot on or near the hill side or jungle. The selection of land is made in the months of December and January by the village elders or clans leaders (Nokmas). The community as a whole is collectively responsible for the clearing of the selected piece of land while in others the cutting of trees and shrubs is made by the respective family to whom the land has been allotted. At the time of allotment of land the size and workforce in the family are taken into consideration.
The land is cleared of all its undergrowth and the branches of trees are lopped off. The growth is allowed to dry on the field. This process of clearing which takes over a month is labour intensive, being undertaken with indigenous and primitive equipments. The dried growth as well as the trees standing in the clearance is set on fire on March. The cultivators take care that the fire should not spread into the forest. After the burning is complete, the unburnt or partly burnt rubbish are collected in one place for the complete burning. The fire kills the weeds, grasses and insects. Then, the ashes are scattered over the ground and dibbling of seeds begin March before the advent of pre-monsoon rain.
Before sowing starts, evil spirits are worshipped and sacrifices are made to
misi-saljong for a good crop and prosperity to the family. It is believed in the interior parts of garo hills that if the throat of a cock is half cut and left walking in the field and in the process it dies lying on its right, the field will bring a bumper crop and prosperity to the family and vice versa. But now sacrifice before sowing the crops is not a common practice.
The seeds are sown either by broadcast or dibbling. The dibbling and planting of seeds is an exclusive job of female members. The male members broadcast seeds of crops like millets and small millets, where crops like maize, pulses, cotton, sessamum and vegetables are dibbled by females. While dibbling the seeds, the women walked over the field with a digging stick or bill-hook in hand, make a hole in the ground, sow a few seeds and covered it over with earth by pressing it down with her toe. At the advent of rains, the seeds begin to sprout. Thus, the soil is never ploughed and no artificial irrigation is made. After sowing the crop, farmer pays cursory attention to the crop and to remove weeds from the field. The crop is, however, protected from stray cattle and wild animals by fencing the fields with bamboo. Many
jhumias construct a small tree-hut called
Bo·rang in the field to look after the crop properly.
Cropping patterns So far as the cropping patterns concerned, the Jhumias adopt mixed cropping. The shifting cultivators grow foodgrains, vegetables, and cash crops. The choice of crop is consumption oriented.
Among the foodgrains the coarse varieties if rice, followed by maize, job’s tears and millets are the principal crops. Cotton, ginger, linseed, sesamum, and jute are the important cash crops grown in jhum fields. Among thevegetables, pumpkins, cucumbers, yams, tapioca, chillies, beans, etc. are cultivated. By and large, the cash crops are are sold in the neighbouring markets or to the middlemen who are generally Roris.
In mix cropping, soil exhausting crops, e.g., rice, maize, millets, cotton, etc. and soil enriching crops, e.g., legumes are grown together. These crops harvest at different periods, thereby providing the tribes with varied food for nearly six to nine months in a year. The same jhum land is cropped by the community for two to three years, thereafter; the land is abandoned to recuperate. Occasionally, some residual crops are collected from the abandoned fields.
Jhum cycle The present jhum cycle of the garo hills is 6 - 9 years. Jhum plots are scattered and vary in size depending on capacity of family labour from 0.2 – 0.5 ha. Paddy and ginger are the dominant crops in the cultivation.
Empirical surveys on land use practices, productivity, soil types and cropping patterns were never undertaken in areas under jhum. Consequently, jhum as a practice tended to be captured through superficial and impressionistic categories.