Shifting cultivation is the chief means of livelihood of the tribal people in the NorthEastern hills region of India. Shifting cultivation is a predatory system of agriculture involvingindiscriminate cutting and burning of forests, improper land use leading to resourcedegradation, ecological imbalance as well as adverse socio- economic effects. The recentstudies in India on shifting cultivation on steep slopes (44-53%) have indicated the soil loss tothe tune of 40.9 tonnes per ha and the corresponding nutrient losses per ha area are: 702.9 kgof organic carbon, 145.5 kg of P2O and 7.1 kg K2O. The study also indicated that secondcropping in the same piece of land was more hazardous as compared to first year cropping.The multidisciplinary research programme of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)aimed at developing alternative land management practices has identified several viable landuse models for the region following their evaluation in terms of their long term runoff,production potentials, soil and nutrient losses, yield behaviour, biotic and abiotic changes andso on. Watershed based farming system, appropriate soil conservation measures, mixed landuse of agri- horti-silvi pastoral system, subsidiary source of income through livestocks rearing,creation of water harvesting and silt retention structure at lower reaches - these are theimportant distinguishing features of the suggested agricultural strategy on this hill slopes.Some of the potential land uses under the systems viz. agropastoral system, hortipastoralsystem, agri horti silvipastoral system, livestock based farming system and the like have beendiscussed. Application of improved production technology and increase of cropping intensity bygrowing at least two high yielding crops have the possibility to increase the productivity ofrainfed bench terrace 3 to 5 times more than that of the sloppy land with no detrimental effecton natural resources.
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