Question

What do you understand by the term Jhum cultivation?

Answer 1

Hint: The ancestral cultivators used to cut the treetops to allow the sunlight to fall onto the ground and clear the land for cultivation by burning the whole vegetation, this practice of cultivation was exercised on small spots of land known as Jhum cultivation.

Complete step by step answer:
The Jhum cultivation is considered as a significant cornerstone of food production for the majority of the population in northeast India, in states like Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Manipur. In some areas, cultivators practice jhum cultivation they burn the vegetation after cutting down the trees and then they spread the ashes which were left in the whole ground and also they mix this ash with the soil to make it ready for cultivation without investing any money and after that seeds are sown after the rains and the crops are grown. This process of cultivation of crops is practiced for about 4 to 5 years until the soil loses its fertility, and that land is abandoned till the soil regains its fertility, then the similar process is performed on another land. This type of cultivation is often used in less economically developed countries. The jhum cultivation has been often blamed for the loss of natural forests causing deforestation and a huge impact on the environment.

Note: The other name of the jhum cultivation is shifting cultivation that refers to the rotational farming of crops in which the land is cleared normally by fire and then it is left to regenerate after some years. This type of cultivation is mainly practiced in hilly and forest areas of the northeast and central India.