Teegalapalli Karthik, Datta Aparajita
Nature Conservation Foundation, 3076/5, 4th Cross, Gokulam Park, Mysore, Karnataka, 570 002, India.
Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, 576 104, India.
Ambio. 2016 Sep;45(5):602-12. doi: 10.1007/s13280-016-0765-x. Epub 2016 Feb 11.
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 not use a one-size-fits-all strategy.
在热带山区，尽管轮垦是一种普遍的做法，但政府政策一直试图用其他土地利用方式取而代之。然而，有几个因素决定了农业社区能否实现这种转变。我们通过采访印度东北部的阿迪部落，试图了解促进或阻碍向固定耕种转变的因素。尽管固定耕种始于20世纪60年代，但约90%的家庭仍在实行轮垦，并遵循与年度农业历法相关的13个节日。我们的研究结果表明，家庭的经济状况决定了一个家庭是否从事固定耕种，而劳动力的可获得性对轮垦很重要。通常，这些细微差别在政府政策中被忽视了。我们得出结论，未来的政策应该考虑到影响社区的文化和社会经济因素，以及景观的社会生态恢复力，而不是采用一刀切的策略。
