Green manuring:a sustainable approach to restore the soil fertility in shifting cultivation

摘要

Shifting cultivation or slash and burn agriculture locally called as jhum is the main form of agriculture in north-eastern hills regions. Jhum agriculture is practising in these areas with traditional knowledge. Jhum cultivation drastically declines their soil fertility and became unsustainable primarily due to increase in population that led to increase in food demand. Therefore, green-manuring acts as a restoration factory to maintain the soil fertility for sustainable agricultural production. Thegreen manure crops protect the bare soil against the erosion and improving the physic-chemical and biological properties of soil. However, hills area soils are not only hungry but thirsty too. The problem is serious in jhum lands, where organic matter, nutrients and microbial biota is lost due to burning of the forests, which leads to heating of the soil. The problem can be mitigated to a great extent by growing of green manuring crops, which will improve the organic matter and nutrient status of the soil.