Changes in Soil Fertility and Rice Productivity in Three Consecutive Years Cropping under Different Fallow Phases Following Shifting Cultivation

Soil fertility and rice productivity in shifting cultivation: impact of fallow lengths and soil amendments in Lengpui, Mizoram northeast India

“…In the present study, maximum rice productivity was recorded in FL-15 compared to FL-10 ( Figure 3 ). Higher crop productivity in longer fallow was also reported earlier by Wapongnungsang et al (2018) .…”

“…Nearly 90% of the population of the region depends on agriculture as the sole source of livelihood. Among the workers of the region, 60.1% are cultivators, 9.3% are agricultural laborers, while 7.3% are connected with livestock, forestry, fishery, and other allied activities ( Das et al., 2012 ; Wapongnungsang et al., 2018 ). Slashing and burning remained to be the easiest way of cultivation not only to sanitize the soil, minimize the weeds and soil pathogens but also to release the locked nutrients within the biomass as ash load to provide more readily available soil nutrients ( Juo and Manu, 1996 ; Wapongnungsang et al., 2018 ; Wapongnungsang, 2018 ).…”

“…Mizoram, one of the northeastern states in India located in tropical hilly areas and dominated by Mizo tribes involved in shifting agricultural practice for their livelihood through centuries. The system is an age-old primitive method of slash and burn and becoming less sustainable due to a shortened cultivation cycle owing to population pressures ( Tripathi et al., 2017 ; Wapongnungsang et al., 2018 ). During shifting cultivation, forested plots are slashed by the farmers followed by in-situ burning of dried biomass and sowing seeds of desired crops manually without tilling the soil ( Grogan et al., 2012 ; Yadav, 2013 ).…”

Soil properties under different land use systems of Mizoram, North East India

“…Soil modification due to changes in land use types and patterns is a major threat to sustainable productivity of the soil (Ayoubi et al, 2011) and is considered one of the major factors that affect the distribution patterns of nutrients (Islam and Weil, 2000) in the soil. Northeastern India is drastically affected by land use change (Grogan et al, 2012;Tao et al, 2018), particularly, shifting cultivation, closely linked to ecological, socio-economic, cultural and land tenure systems of tribal communities (Tripathi et al, 2017) profoundly affects the soil fertility and crop productivity (Wapongnungsang et al, 2018). Mizoram, a region with steep slopes hills in Northeast India have undergone different land use change (Lallianthanga and Hmingthanpuii, 2013;Lallianthanga et al, 2014) with more than 60% of the total population depending on small scale agricultural practices as it is the main source of liveli-hood for rural areas.…”

“…This has led to raise major concerns about the sustainability of such land use types in the tropics (Lal, 2010). Although several studies have already been reported related to shifting agriculture (Hauchhum and Tripathi, 2017;Wapongnungsang, 2017;Wapongnungsang et al, 2018), however, the impact of land use change and plantations on soil physicochemical and biological properties is poorly understood. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the soil properties in five different land use systems, namely, Rubber Plantation, Oil Palm Plantation, Bamboo Forest, Fallow land (~20 yrs) and Natural Forest.…”