Developing awareness and skills of the land users on measures of Jhum intensification & optimization in Mizoram, India

Publicado: 02 Julio 2020
Última edición: 02 Julio 2020
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Jhum as a farming practice is mostly found in the North East India and it is the way of life and deeply embeded in the tradition and culture of the local communities of the region.  However in the recent past due to changes in the socio-economic condition and  land use pattern, shortcomings like reduced jhum cycles, reduced fallow period, loss in soil fertility and poor crop yields have started to emerge in the jhum field of Mizoram thereby threatening degeneration of the state's rich natural resource and well being of the community directly depending on them.

The IKI- Biodiv  project has helped in generating awareness  and  strengthened the capacity of the land users on measures of jhum optimization and intensification which will contribute to promoting biodiversity and ecosystem services while ensuring food and livelihood security of the farmers.


Sudeste Asiático
Escala de aplicación
Institucionalización de la biodiversidad
Pérdida de la biodiversidad
Falta de oportunidades de ingresos alternativos
Falta de capacidad técnica
Falta de seguridad alimentaria
Desempleo / pobreza
Objectivos de Desarrollo Sostenible
ODS 1 - Fin de la pobreza
ODS 2 - Hambre cero
ODS 3 - Salud y bienestar
ODS 13 - Acción por el clima
ODS 15 - Vida de ecosistemas terrestres
Metas de Aichi
Meta 1: Aumento de la sensibilization sobre la biodiversidad
Meta 2: Valores de biodiversidad integrados
Meta 4: Producción y consumo sostenibles
Meta 7: Agricultura, acuicultura y silvicultura
Meta 8: Reducción de la contaminación
Meta 13: Protección de la diversidad genética
Meta 14: Los servicios ecosistemicos
Meta 15: Restauración de ecosistemas y resiliencia
Meta 17: Estrategias y planes de acción para la biodiversidad
Meta 18: Conocimiento tradicional
Meta 19: Intercambio de información y conocimiento
Enfoques para el compromiso empresarial
Indirecto a través del gobierno


Mizoram, India


  • Jhumming or the rotational agro forestry is the main landuse practice and the major source of food security and livelihood for the rural communities of Mizoram for centuries. This practice  is well adapted to this region creating cultural landscapes and has been found to preserve biodiversity and forest on a long term.  
  • In recent years, jhum has come under stress due to land use changes, shortening of jhum cycle, reduced fallow period, loss of soil fertility and reduced crop yield.Therefore there is an urgent need to align various ecosystem services with the rapid soicio economic transformation taking place in Mizoram.
  • Therefore to popularize the practice of jhum optimization and intensification by bringing in measures for increasing cultivation period i.e. fallow management to restore soil fertility, recharge soil moisture and underground water, creation of secondary forest and other subsidiary income as well as enhancing microbial actvities and maintain ecosystem were undertaken.


Village council members and farmers of Khawrihnim village in Mizoram were the main beneficiaries. Besides them a Self help group and  government officials of forest department also benefitted from the programme.

¿ Cómo interactúan los building blocks en la solución?

  • The first building block helped to address the Knowledge gap of the  local communities and land users by generating awareness about the importance of biodiversity conservation and its linkages to their livelihood and food security. 
  • The second building block made them to realize  that the measures of jhum optimization are just some kind of improvisation of the method which they were already practicing and by observing them being practiced by their counterpart in Nagaland helped them
    - to improve their knowledge, 
    - to gain confidence 
    - and to trigger practicing them back in their village.
  • After enhancement of their capacity, the third building block can effectively address the challenge, as  the local community depends upon the forest and its resources  for their livelihood and the need to conserve it by adopting various innovative practices of good jhuming.
  • Finally the solution will provide an oppurtunity to convince the government for mainstreaming jhum optimization measures and incorporate this in their policy.

Impactos positivos


  • Awareness on biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management was generated among the government official, community leaders and farmers.
  • Interest among the farmers and community leaders to take up different jhum optimization measures in their jhum field was developed. 
  • The farmers started to conserve the forest tree seedlings and trees offshoots during weeding in their jhum field.
  • The department of forest environment and wild life exhibited interest and was ready to asses the villagers with ready to plant tree saplings.




 In Khawrihnim village the farmers were practicing Jhum for generations and cultivation of secondary crops, mixed and  intercropping of oilseeds, pulses, vegetables, spices and tubers  along with rice as the main crop were in the practice in the jhum field.Though the farmers were aware about the benefits of long fallow cycle and regeneration of forest, they were skeptical about the idea of continuing in the same Jhum plot in the second year as they feared drastic reduction of crop yield due to loss of soil fertility. Further, the village had never thought about it, as they were comfortable with utilizing the Jhum land only for a year as they had enough land in their disposal and presently their Jhum cycle was 9-10 years.

The village council authority and the farmers were convinced after the workshop  that little modification in their existing jhum system through jhum optimization measures would benefit them immensely  through increase in household income while conserving biodiversty and improving ecosystem service of the land users.

Contribuido por

Dr.Dipak K. Chetri Consultant to GIZ