Shifting to settled cultivation: changing practices among the Adis in Central Arunachal Pradesh, north-east India

In the hilly tropics, although shifting cultivation is a widespread practice, government policies have attempted to replace it with other land uses. However, several factors determine whether farming communities can make the shift. We tried understanding the factors that facilitate or impede the shift to settled cultivation through interviews with the Adi tribe in north-east India. Although settled cultivation was initiated in the 60s, about 90% of the families still practise shifting cultivation, observing 13 festivals associated with the annual agricultural calendar. Our results indicate that the economic status of a household determined whether a family undertook settled cultivation, while labour availability was important for shifting cultivation. Often, these nuances are ignored in the Government policies. We conclude that future policies should be mindful of cultural and socio-economic factors that affect the community and of the social-ecological resilience of the landscapes and ...

在热带山区，尽管轮耕（shifting cultivation）是一种广泛存在的农业方式，但政府政策一直试图以其他土地利用方式取而代之。然而，多个因素决定着农业社区能否实现这一转变。我们通过对印度东北部阿迪部落（Adi tribe）的访谈，试图厘清哪些因素会促进或阻碍向定居农业（settled cultivation）的转变。尽管定居农业于20世纪60年代开始推行，但约90%的家庭仍保留轮耕传统，并且遵循与年度农业周期相关的13个节日。研究结果表明，家庭经济状况决定了其是否采用定居农业，而劳动力可获得性则是轮耕农业的关键因素。然而，这些细微差异在政府政策中往往被忽视。我们的结论是，未来政策应充分考虑影响社区的文化与社会经济因素，以及景观的社会生态韧性（social-ecological resilience）……