Improvement of Jhum with Crop Model and Carbon Sequestration Techniques to Mitigate Climate Change in Eastern Himalayan Region, India

Slash and burn cultivation (jhum) is the most disadvantageous method of cultivation in the Eastern Himalayan Region. This practice causes soil, nutrient, water erosion and biodiversity loss. Therefore, alternate conservation practice is required urgently. Field experiment was conducted at two villages viz., Digbak and Belo with two sites at each village on Dumporijo circle district Daporijo, Arunachal Pradesh during 2008 to 2010. The experiment was laid out in such a way that farmers practice was considered as control (T1); T2- T1 + Mulching with crop residues; T3- Improved crop management (includes plant population, application of manure and fertilizer, pesticides, weed management, hedge row incorporation); T4- T3 + mulching with crop residues. T4 gave higher yield of rice, maize, chilli, tomato, french bean, okra (69, 107, 163, 211, 98.6 and 126% respectively) over T1. Whereas, pea and soybean were additional crop harvested from T2, T3 and T4. Similarly the biomass (crop, hedge row plants and weeds) was recorded 225.8, 208.5 and 19.9% higher on T4, T3 and T2, respectively over T1. The final status of porosity was recorded 7.6, 6.7 and 2.4% respectively higher for T4, T3 and T2 over traditional jhum cultivation. Similarly the chemical parameters like soil organic carbon (SOC; 43.3, 39.2 and 21.6% respectively), N (25.4, 19.6 and 6.7% respectively), P (45.2, 39.8 and 12.9% respectively) and K (31.3, 25.9, and 5.0% respectively) were recorded higher on T4, T3 and T2 over traditional jhum cultivation. The rice equivalent yield, production efficiency, land use efficiency and income were recorded higher on T4 followed by T3. However the employment generation was higher for T3 followed by T4. All the economic parameters were recorded higher when crops were grown under the T4 followed by T3 except B- C and MC- MR.