Factors Associated with Shifting Cultivation in Meghalaya: Policy Perspective Probit Approach

In the state of Meghalaya, shifting cultivation is still prevalent in the hilly regions. Although, several policies were framed to wean farmers from the practice to adopt sedentary agricultural practices, the transition was slow. Based on data obtained from 250 farmers, the paper examines the structural base of cultivators and the factors associated with the continuing practice of shifting cultivation. Probit regression model was employed to analyse the effect of different factors that influence farmers' decision to continue slash and burn agriculture Overall, the paper concludes that there were slight differences in the socio-economic characteristics between the two groups of farmers. Notwithstanding the category of households, majority of the respondents were engaged in agriculture and were dependent on this sector to make their ends meet. The results of the probit estimation showed that age and lack of alternative livelihood had significant positive influence on continuation of shifting cultivation while family size, annual per capita income, Government incentives and access to market had negative significant influence. Hence, it reaffirms the role of Government in weaning-off the farmers from shifting cultivation. Agroforestry, forest gardens and home gardens could be considered as promising ventures accompanied with capacity building and development of skills regarding better farming practices and value addition among the community. However, to stand the test of time, policy makers need to make arrangements for survival of the dual economy consisting of traditional jhum farming with settled agriculture in the short term while allowing the transition between the systems organically over time providing the space to jhum cultivation under natural farming will prove a better option.