Session 15-07 The relevance of population for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

Population growth, Agricultural Land use Change and Implication for Food Security in Plateau,

Rabi Narayan Behera, Research Scholar ([email protected]) and D. K. Nayak, Professor ([email protected]) Department of Geography, North-Eastern Hill University, , India Abstract The paper outlines regional population growth and its linkages with changes in agricultural landscape and following implications for food security in Meghalaya. Traditionally the tribal people in the Northeast including those in Meghalaya practiced Jhum (shifting cultivation) in the hill slopes as an important means of livelihood. With relatively low density of population and long Jhum cycles, these communities could manage their livelihood. The situation changed drastically over the years largely due to phenomenal increase in population in the wake of substantive improvement in health infrastructure and declining mortality. This has made the traditional agricultural practices unsustainable. Search for alternative livelihood became inevitable. The traditional practice of Jhum is no more considered adequate to support a large number of people due to progressive decline in the Jhum cycle that had debilitating effects on land quality. Land degradation, soil erosion, declining fertility and harvests have a cumulative effect on the lives and livelihoods of the people. However the change has been felt by people as one of the copping strategies of food insecurity. The study underscores the interconnectedness of population dynamics, changes in agricultural landscape, local food systems and food security in hill area.

Key words : Jhum , cash crops, , Meghalaya plateau and food security

“… every village’s first concern will be to grow own food crops, and cotton for its cloth. It should have a reserve for its cattle, recreation and playground for adults and children. Then if there is more land available, it will grow useful money crops, thus excluding ganja, tobacco, opium and the like ” M. K. Gandhi, 1947 , India of my Dream , page no. 96.

INTRODUCTION One of the most important goals of the millennium development goal is to ensure freedom to all individuals from extreme poverty and hunger (UN, 2010:12). Hunger and food security is the output of the nexus between available natural resources, population dynamics, level of technology, individual access to resources and food over time and space. Mountains and hills are often regarded as non-ecumene or negative areas and are ecologically more fragile than fertile plains (Clarke, 1990: 1; Ramakrishnan, 2001: 47). In developing countries like India, the tribals inhabiting poorly resource-endowed areas like degraded and the mountainous regions are under-nourished or food insecure (Swaminathan, 2006). The population pressure has direct impact on agricultural land use and forest. Unlike the plain areas, hilly areas in India have its own limitation in adopting intensive agriculture under growing population pressure. Under such a situation, the tribal people who are by and large confined to the hilly and mountainous tracts generally unfavorable to intensive agriculture have been forced to adapt diverse coping strategies 1. Commercialization of agriculture is one of the most important coping strategies take up by a section of the tribal people in rural Meghalaya. A substantial part of the agricultural landscape in rural Meghalaya has changed to commercial cropping. This process is likely to be intensified in years to come. Such a change may have its own repercussions. It may alter availability of many traditional food stuff, ago-biodiversity, land relations, food habit, food preference, consumption patterns and people’s trust, behavior, attitude towards food 2 . The change raises questions on the capability of ensuring freedom to all individual from extreme poverty, hunger and malnutrition as one of the most important millennium development goal (i.e. 1

the Goal No. 1). The present study limits itself to implications of increasing agricultural Page Session 15-07 The relevance of population for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals commercilisation towards food security 3 in Meghalaya plateau. It supports a high proportion (above 90%) of tribal people who traditionally practice subsistence farming of Jhum in manageable slopes and settled cultivation mostly restricted to river valleys.

Background Northeast region of India- a predominantly hilly region is home to many tribes. Jhum 4 system in recent past was the source of food, livelihood, the dominant land use practice and way of life for all tribal groups in hills of northeastern India including Meghalaya (Mukherji, 1975:19; Borthakur, 1992: 137; Darlong, 2004: 12; Ramakrishnan, 1993:14, 45; Barik et al , 2004: 10; Rai, 1986: 36; Tiwari et al , 1995: 75; Hunter, 1879: 162; Marak, 2010: 230; Bhatt et al , 2007: 267). The old age practice has undergone substantial changes and modification. At present jhum is geographically limited to relatively isolated villages in forest areas (Fig. 4). In some places, it has emerged as modified Jhum , particularly in places with no or sparse forest cover. Locally Jhum cultivation in is known as rep shyrti (in the local dialect), and the modified version is referred to as rep bun and rep pull 5. Nevertheless area under any type of Jhum has been declining since five decades (Fig. 1).This is largely due to phenomenal change of hill demography. Initially, the need to change from the Jhum system to cash crops has been felt by people in some areas and consequently they traditionally cultivated some types of cash crops. The change diffused to the farmers of other areas in varying degrees depending upon cultural/regional factors. The traditional cash crop areas evolved on its own as a copping strategy to changing situations in a given socio-cultural and agro-climatic conditions of particular regions. Further, the adoption to different types of traditional cash crops varied across the plateau depending upon bio-geophysical and human environment. For example the Ri War region 6 adopted areca nuts, beetle leaves and some indigenous tropical fruits ( Shophi, Sholang, Soyong etc.) including citrus in Cherapunjee, its adjacent areas, and in Garo hills; whereas broom grass and bay leaves in comparatively less warm areas. These areas are mostly located in northern and southern side of the central plateau. The elongated region between central plateau and southern precipitous region is the best example of broom grass plantation. Turmeric has been adopted in some parts of the Jaintia hills. Other traditional crops which have been adopted as cash crops in the different parts of the plateau include ginger, banana, vegetable and spices. Thus the initial adoption of cash crop was far more location specific. Traditionally the tribal people of the area are familiar with the crop and acquired expertise over time as compared to non-traditional crops. These evolving cash crop systems make use of traditional knowledge. For example, male famer of traditional areca nuts plantation area ( Ri War regions) have developed expertise to climb the tree very easily for harvest and management, whereas the non-traditional areas of areca nut often employ labor (skilled labor i.e. labor who can climb) during harvest. Generally the labor supply is from outside the village. Secondly the use of ‘bamboo drip irrigation’ in traditional vine plantation is one of the best examples of the use of traditional knowledge in the traditional cash crop system. This irrigation system is unique to this part of the country. The potato was another cash crop, which cultivation was introduced in higher elevated areas particularly in upper Shillong area. It is a non-traditional cash crop and was introduced by Devid Scott in 1830 during . The potato farmers of the area has innovated the methods ‘making ridges-furrows’ over time to make optimum use of the available fragile hill resources. This method has been evolved to cope with new changing situation in the area. Much later but 2 quite influential change was brought by the introduction of non-traditional cash crops in rural Page Session 15-07 The relevance of population for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

Meghalaya. This type of commercialization was felt necessary by various institutions including non-governmental organizations. It is externally superimposed by institution(s) like governmental department, NGOs, companies and other agencies through their targeted plans, schemes and programs. Tea, coff ee, rubber, strawberry are a few example s of this category of cash crops. There are significant difference s between these two broad cash crop systems though both are grown mainly for sale and usually for export rather than directly consumed by the farm household. Much like traditional cash crops , these non-traditional cash crops too diffused over space determined by regional characteristics of the respective regions. For example rubber and cashew nut plantation were carried out in low altitude areas and in the foot hills with relatively high temperature. These areas are located mostly in Garo hills and in some areas of northern undulating region (Ri Bhoi region) of Khasi hills.

80000 70000 60000 50000 40000 30000

Area in in Area Hec. 20000 10000 0 1971 1978 1983 2008- 09 Meghalaya 76000 76000 53000 20981

Figure 1 Meghalaya: Area under Jhum and regional concentration

The change includes single crop to multi -crop production, subsistence to market oriented crops as well as to non-food crops. The change in the Jhum system has resulted in significant decline in area of all major staple food crops with a corresponding incre ase in acreage under commercial crops. The change has been traced directly or indirectly by many researcher (Nakane, 1961: 98; Rigg, 1987: 371, 380; Kar, 1982: 144, 145; Alamgir et al 1991: 124; Borthakur, 1992:59; Sangama, 1995: 108, 98; Ramakrishnan, 1993: 29, 32; Fernandes et al , 2005: 156-157; Fernandes and Pereira, 2005: 154; Choudhury, 2005 : 20, 24; Goldsmith, 2006:139; Department of Agriculture, GoM, 2006: 36; Directorate of Eco nomics & Statistics, GoM, 2003: 28; Borah, 2010: 121 -24; Planning Department, GoM, 2009: 236, 116; Marak, 2010: 231; Sekar, 2010:171; McMichael, 2010: 609; RC NAEB, 2010: 22; Patnaik, 2012:11, 12). But these references have thinly covered the magnitude of the change and its food security implication in general and particularly in the context of Meghalaya. This is may be due to excessive engagement of the regional researcher with the issues like identities, conflicts, insurgency, and migr ations have been set aside important issue like food security in the region (Hussain, 2004: 4516). On the other hand, national level researches have also failed to address the problem possibly due to lack of data for this part of the country in general and food security im plication of commercial crops in particular . The best examples are Report on the State of Food 3 Insecurity in Rural India and India State Hunger Index: Comparisons of Hunger Across States Page Session 15-07 The relevance of population for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals published by M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF, 2008) and International Food Policy Research Institute, New Delhi and University of California respectively. These two reports have not included the northeastern hilly region in their study because of above stated reason. Thus, the more serious question that needs to be investigated in the present research pertains to the issue of food security in the plateau. The changes to cash crop production can be beneficial but could also mean increasing food insecurity due to changes from multi-crop production to a single crop production. Consequently there are many new issues have been emerged like marketability of their produce, fluctuation in demand and price, level of integration of markets, level of infrastructure, use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, land relation, quality of food and food safety etc. The problem could be more acute for tribal people who have no previous experience of cash crop cultivation and the problems associated with it. The study acquires significance in this context.

Methods and Materials Study Area Spatially, hills and forested tracts of India are the dwelling places of tribal groups in India (Ahmad, 2002:122). Tribal communities of northeast India are living with relative isolation in the distant hills (Datta, 2011: 120) and spatially remote areas. They are chronically food deficit and it produces roughly half of its requirement (Hussain, 2004: 4515; Mohapatra, 2006: 15). The region is a frontier zone of Indian federation, geopolitically vibrant, conflict prone, socio- ethnically diversified and relatively isolated from rest of India. Besides, the region is also manifested with diverse agro-climatic manifestation, rapid demographic and socio-economic transformation and change. Three level of analysis have been done, i.e. the plateau as a whole to understand an aggregate picture of major agricultural land use categories, followed by change within the individual crop at regional level. The plateau is divided into three broad cultural regions on the basis of its regional characteristics built upon broad socio-cultural and bio-physical setting. Further at the level of crop regime, the entire plateau is classified into different food system 7- jhum food system and cash crop based food system. The first two levels are used to understand the magnitude, trend and location of the land use change. On the other hand, the third level is use as a ground for field work and accordingly the implications were drawn at the level of food system. Field work has been conducted across different food systems. Two control group villages have been selected from traditional crop regime and four focus group villages from both traditional and non-traditional cash crop regime.

Choices of time periods and crops Acreages of five subsistence crops, eight traditional cash crops and five non-traditional cash crops have been selected based on the availability of data and its degree of importance in tribal food 8. As the area under Jhum is not regularly published in agricultural census, thus it has been compiled from heterogeneous reports and publication like North Eastern Councils (NEC), Task Force on Shifting Cultivation and other published sources. The study has used two parameters to understand the land use change in the plateau. The first parameter used four indices of land use change: macro land use change, relative land use change, the trend of the change and regional pattern among seven standard land use categories. The second parameter

deals with changes under individual crops categories both within subsistence and cash crop. 4 Further cash crops are classified into two categories i.e. traditional cash crops and non-traditional Page Session 15-07 The relevance of population for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals cash crops. Traditional crops, defines as the crops those have been cultivated by the people as subsistence crops 9 and recently commercialized for sale. On the other hand, non-traditional cash crops are introduced recently and were never a part of traditional cultivation. The year 1973-74 is used as the base year for many traditional crops (both subsistence and commercial) as well as for macro land utilization. Rationale behind choosing the year as base year is availability of data at the regional level. On the other hand, multiple base years has been used for non-commercial crops, depending upon the successive penetration (rubber, cashew nut, coffee and tea are introduced in 1957-58, 1962-63, 1962-63, 1997-88 respectively) of these crops into the region. Besides that, the base year 1973 could not used for some of the traditional commercial crops like ginger as the data are not available for the year.

CHANGE IN POPULATION AND LAND USE Population growth Land use/cover changes analyses are fundamental to understand diverse societal, economical and environmental problems of any area. The change in agricultural land use is increasingly being recognized as an overriding factor of food security in general and in rural and less accessible hilly areas of developing world in particular. Traditionally, hill tribal of northeast India including the tribal of Meghalaya were mostly ‘locavore’10 . But the demographic change has transformed the agriculture and food system of the plateau. The study finds population growth as the pivot of agricultural change in the plateau. Population growth in northeastern region of India is much higher than the Indian national average in the 20th century and became a factor for many problems, particularly after independence (Bhattachayya, 2006: 55). Like the northeastern region, the plateau has also experienced higher population growth than the national average in the last century (Fig. 1). The population density of the region increased from 10 per square Km in 1872 to 132 in 2011 per square Km. As the carrying capacity of the hill region is much lesser than fertile plain, the most important repercussion of population growth in the plateau was on traditional agricultural practices and food systems. Population growth has direct impacts on decline of Jhum cycle and debilitating effect on soil erosion, land degradation, declining fertility and harvest. It has a cumulative effect on the lives and livelihoods of the people particularly in relatively high populated areas. Many researchers have agreed that the rapid population growth is solely responsible for shorten in Jhum cycle (Das, 1979: 131; Bhowmic, 1986:12; Rai, Ibid: 33; Bora, 1986: 47; Agarwal, 1990:440: Ramakrishna, 1993: 14, 58; Bhatt et al : 2007: 263). Figure 4 shows clear relation between population growth and distribution of the concentration of Jhum in major regions of the plateau. Besides, the other non-food needs 11 have also multiplied over time. Thus demographic pressure and newly emerged modern non-food needs (where the volume is also controlled by the numbers of people) added an additional pressure on their traditional agriculture directly and indirectly. But traditional agriculture failed 12 to provide food and the modern need together. This period was responsible for evolution of new cash crop based food system as a copping strategy of food security with changed demographic situation in the plateau. Broom grass, ginger, nuts and vine, some spices and fruits which were there in the plateau but were never cultivated commercially as it is cultivated today. For the best example is broom grass was never cultivated neither in Khasi or Garo Hills. It was wildly growing in forest (Tiwari et al , 2008: 50) and till today, it is classified as a forest product (Tiwari et al , 2008: 49; Kharwanlang, 2010: 136) by district councils and local institutions, though long back it has 5 already been achieved the status of an important commercial crop in practice. Thus population Page Session 15-07 The relevance of population for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals pressure is one of the major factors that made jhum futile both economically and ecologically, particularly in high population areas and areas with more accessibility. The recent changes in agricultural land use and cropping patterns have brought fundamental changes in the agricultural landscape and food systems as well. Because of this change in the traditional food system , the hill people gradually became more and more de pendent on import food. This import of staple started around the end of eighteenth century from the adjacent plains 13 . At present imported rice took over the place of traditional staple i.e. the millets. Most of the rice consumed by the hill people is impor ted from far Andhra and Punjab -Haryana region 14 of the country. Interesting to note that, this part of India does not experiences green revolution and post -green revolution stages 15 . As the environment does not allow for green revolution, northeastern states directly jumped from subsistence to commercialization .

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35 2500000 60 2001 30 50 25 2000000 40 20 1500000 30 1981

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20 Population 10 1000000 1961 10 5 1941 Meghalaya Meghalaya 500000 1901 1921 0 India 0 India

1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 0 Year Year 1900 1950 2000 Census Year

Figure 2 Population growth and growth of population d ensity Figure 3 Megh alaya: Population trend

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40 6% 1% 38 Khasi hills 36 Jaintia hills 34 93% Garo hills (%) 32 2001-2011

30 1991-2001

28 2001-2011

26 Garo Hills Khasi Hills Jaintia Hills MEGHALAYA

Fig 4 Population growth in Meghalaya (1991 -2011) and Jhum concentration 2008-09

Table 1 Population concentration (% to the total) and density (persions per Sq. Km.) 1981 1991 2001 2011 Region Concen. Density Concen. Density Concen. Density Concen. Density Garo Hills 37.91 62 37.69 82 37.52 106 37.22 135 Khasi Hills 50.38 64 49.89 85 49.58 110 49.53 141 Jaintia Hills 11.71 40 12.42 58 12.90 78 13.25 103 MEGHALAYA 100.00 60 100.00 79 100.00 103 100.00 132 Note: Concen.- concentration

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Land use Aggregate and Regional The macro land use patterns at state level (Table 2) shows substantial increase in net sown area, area sown more than once , and total cropped area (NSA, ASMTO, TCA). Whereas, other three categories like fallow land, area not available for cultivation and other uncultivable land have registered declined. This gives positive impression i.e. substantial increases of net sown area uplifted food security level in the state. But the regional pattern revealed that the increase is not equal over space and limited to two regions only. NSA, ASMTO, TCA grew significantly in Garo hills, moderately in Khasi hills and declined in Jaintia Hills (Table 5). Further, the regional change of net sown area is highly varied over space. It is negative in Jaintia hills, about 37% growth in Khasi hills and unprecedented growth in Garo hill regions (more than four times of Khasi hills region). It is interesting to mention that though the aggregate fallow land i.e. at the state level shows negative growth, whereas regionally it declined only in Garo hills region and increased in substantially in Khasi hills region and Jaintia hills region. The growth difference of fallow land between Khasi hills region and Jaintia hills regions is more than three times. Forest land has also grown but the growth is remained debatable. Thus demographic pressure in hill regions will increases agricultural commercialization in general and decrease the acreage under food crops in particular.

Table 2 Meghalaya: Macro Land use/cover Change, 1973-74 to 2010-11 Change Macro Land use types Absolute (hec.) Growth rate in % Forests 123254 14.97 Area not available for cultivation -71616 -23.16 Other uncultivated lands -59216 -9.64 Fallow lands -107099 -33.42 Area sown more than once 25023 86.43 Total cropped area 135337 66.82 Net area sown 110314 63.55 Total land utilization 155997 6.31 Source: 1Statistical Abstract of Meghalaya 1978, p. 80 and 2Land use Statistics in Meghalaya for the Year 2009-10 & 2010-11 , Directorate of Economics & Statistics, GoM, Shillong. Table 3 Meghalaya: Relative Land use Change (% change from total land utilization of the year) Macro Land use types 1973-74 1 2010-11 2 Change Forests 33.30 36.01 2.71 Area not available for cultivation 12.51 9.04 -3.47 Other uncultivated lands 24.84 21.11 -3.73 Fallow lands 12.97 8.12 -4.85 Area sown more than once 1.17 2.05 0.88 Total cropped area 8.20 12.86 4.66 Net area sown 7.02 10.81 3.78 Total land utilization 100 100 - Notes and Sources: 1 Meghalaya Socio-Economic Review 2003 , p. 27 and 2Land use Statistics in Meghalaya for the Year 2009-10 & 2010-11 , Directorate of Economics & Statistics, GoM, Shillong. Figures in the parenthesis represent absolute land utilization in the respective category of the year.

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Table 4 Meghalaya: Trend of Land use/cover Change (growth in %)

Period Forest Area not Other Fallow Net Area sown Total available for uncultivable land sown more than croppe cultivation area once d area 1973-74 to 1984-85 3.71 -26.99 17.94 -26.90 3.76 34.71 16.54 Source 1984-85 to 1993-94 9.97 -0.6 -11.17 -3.44 11.74 -4.44 1.04 s and 1993-94 to 2003-04 0.93 -0.10 -6.75 1.31 8.95 25.18 11.48 Note: 2003-04 to 2010-11 -0.12 5.40 -7.51 -9.50 29.49 15.70 27.07 Absolu tes figures are compiled from various volumes of Statistical abstracts published by Directorate of Economics, Statistics and Evaluation, GOM, Shillong. Figures are not available for the year 1983-84.

Table 5 Meghalaya: Regional Patterns of Land use/cover Change (growth rate in %), 1973-74 to 2010-11 Land use types Regions Khasi Hills Jaintia Hills Garo Hills Forest 1.49 105.83 10.80 Area not available for cultivation -9.72 -76.95 -16.27 Other uncultivated lands other than fallow -35.02 16.81 175.73 Fallow lands 333.09 88.24 -67.86 Net area sown 37.91 -20.96 151.94 Area sown more than once 53.19 -70.99 121.25 Total cropped area 40.16 -22.28 145.57 Total land utilization -3.22 8.25 15.59 Source: As above table no 2 Change within individual crops As mentioned earlier macro land use shows that the acreages under NSA, ASMTO, TCA grew in the entire state in general and in Garo hills region in particular. Further figure 5, 6 and 7 reveal that the growth are limited to commercial crops and the acreages under all the subsistence crops declined irrespective of the regions. In aggregate (state level), except soybean the growth of all the other subsistence crops including total food grains declined (appendix 1). The highest declined registered in maize crops (around -70) and the lowest in rice crops (around -4). As far as the subsistence crops are concern Jaintia hills is the worst sufferer followed by Khasi and Garo hills regions (appendix 1). Moreover the areal concentrations of subsistence crops are also least or close to least (in four cases out five cases), in Jaintia hills regions except soybean. After analyzing both the parameters, it is confirmed that the agricultural landscape of the plateau is changing. The change is from subsistence to cash crop, multi-cropping to mono-cropping, even food crop to non-food crops in some places.

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120000 Rice 60000 Maize 110000 1973-74 1973-74 100000 2010-11 50000 2010-11 90000

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Figure 5 Meghalaya: Change of area under subsistence crops

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15000 Areca nut 10000 Citrus 14000 1973-74 1973-74 9000 13000 2010-11 2010-11 12000 8000 11000 7000 10000 9000 6000 8000 5000 7000 Hectares

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11000 7000 Banana Pine apple 6500 1973-74 10000 1974-75 6000 2010-11 9000 2010-11 5500 8000 5000 4500 7000 4000 6000 3500 5000 3000 Hectares 2500 Hectares 4000 2000 3000

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10000 2000 Turmeric Ginger 1800 1973-74 9000 1985-86 2010-11 2010-11 1600 8000

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Figure 6 Meghalaya: Change of area under traditional commercial crops

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18000 Potato 5000 Rubber 1957-58 1973-74 4500 16000 2009-10 2010-11 4000 14000 3500 12000 3000 10000 2500 8000 Hectares

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200 Coffee 180 1962-63 2010-11 160

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Figure 7 Meghalaya: Change of area under non-traditional commercial crops

IMPLICATIONS Population growth in the plateau has declined area under fallow land but it has also worked as major factors of erosion and decline of food crops. The population pressure is leading to change and modification in traditional agricultural practices and switch on to cash crops instead of growing food crops. The changes have major implications for food security of the plateau largely in the context of its distinct socio-cultural setting, bio-physical environment, and relative isolation. The implications include 1. Cash crop: Transforming hill agriculture : The demographic pressure has modified the local agricultural practices in a great extent. The emergence of mono crops has eroded traditional food crops (Table 5) and has also disturbed local biodiversity. Hardly there is any food crop survived in non-traditional cash crop area as compared to Jhum food 11 Page Session 15-07 The relevance of population for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

system. The broom and rubber food system is the example where no food crops cultivated. 2. Emergence of new food system : There are drastic changes in food system in hills of Meghalaya underpinned by the recent change in agriculture. Unlike before, presently the local food production failed to meet the local requirement and consequently the dependency on external food imports is in rise. The gradual fall of availability of local rice in the hills reveal the increasing dependency with growing population (Fig. 8 and Table 6). Most of the staple (like rice, fish, egg, pulses, meat) are imported from far main-land India. Food systems are gradually becoming complex as food miles are rising over time (Fig. 9). 3. Impact on consumption pattern: There is a change in sources of food (Table 8) and food basket (Fig.7) and it varies across food systems. This has many implications on local food consumption pattern (Table 9). Proportion of local food 16 has declined and the consequent rise of non local food in daily household food consumption. Hence it will affect the tribal food and nutrition security. 4. Source and safety : Small grocery shop, meat and vegetable shops are opened and accessibility to market food stuff has increased in some cash crops areas. The role of food transport has been increased tremendously. But there are hardly much improvement of road conditions and means of transport. The new issues like question of food safety, quality control, adulteration and freshness of market food (particularly perishable products) are become very important in these areas. But unfortunately neither the modern administration nor the grass root level traditional institution have any quality control mechanism to check the quality and food safety aspects of imported food. 5. The kitchen garden: space between housing units : Kitchen garden, pigs and chickens rearing are traditionally part of food system of rural Meghalaya. It influenced the household nutrition and food security. But it is found that these traditional practices are no more in practice or modified particularly in highly populated areas or in compact settlement. The best example is the Nongtalang village which turns into a compact settlement due to significant increase of numbers of household from around 20 in 1960 to around 400 in 2012. At present hardly there are any space between housing units and its leads to absence of kitchen garden. Secondly, there are no domesticated animal in the village because of mainly three reasons like lack of space, to keep the village clean and not to disturb neighbor. Commercialization of traditional fruits and the areca nut took over the space of kitchen garden in broom food system (Khaid village in Khasi Hills) and areca nut food system (Chengkompara village, Garo hills) respectively. On the other hand the kitchen gardens are big and full of many vegetable and other edible in dispersed settlement of Jhum areas. 6. The Price Game: Unlike the rest of India, neither the local government nor the central government has any control over the price of many of the cash crops of the hills. As the nature and characteristics of agricultural products of hills are different from plain, hill tribal failed to avail the provision of minimum support price. Now the poor farmers are trapped by middle man, elites section of the community and politicians. Internally they control the price, demand and market of cash crops. Recently price of many cash crops fall drastically. Particularly the price of areca nut and broom grass which are widely grown in the plateau. According to the farmers this is due to the declining demand of 12 areca nut due to recent ban on tobacco products in many states. Suddenly the price of Page Session 15-07 The relevance of population for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

broom grass fall in the state from Rs. 70.00 / 80.00 per kg to Rs. 10.00 /12.00 per kg. This fall of the price was just one year before the state legislative elections. Now the poor farmers are victim of political economy. Moreover the hill state of Meghalaya witnessed the maximum rise in prices of essential items as compared to not only other northern states but also in the entire country 17 . 7. Class, clan and the poor : The level of vulnerability of poor and marginal section 18 of the community has multiplied over time and space. Some commercial crops have changed the traditional land relation in some extent. The gap between poor and reach has increased significantly in cash crops growing areas and traditional communitarian ethos of equity is in slide. 8. Ecological implications : Both short and long term ecological implications of commercial crops are far reaching. According to Bhatt et al this type of cultivation, in its traditional form conserve agro-biodiversity, particularly germplasm of native crop varieties, represents an effective form of land use, a way of optimum utilization of space, controlling weeds, soil-borne pathogens, crops diseases, required low external input and ensure food security to farm household (Bhatt et al , 2007: 267). In the words of Ramakrishnan: In the ultimate analysis, mixed cropping maximizes production, minimizes losses, provides a wide food resources base for the tribal society by providing cereals, legumes, vegetables and even fiber and at the same time ensures leisure by effectively spreading out labour all the year round (Ramakrishnan, 1993: 42). Thus there may be a need revisit the relevance of Gandihian idea on land use, particularly in the context of developing country as far as the food security is concern.

Table 5 Agricultural Bio-diversity in different food system (types of food crops available) Food systems Regions Cereals Tubers Vegetables Leafy Spices/ vegetables oil seed Jhum Khasi hills 3 types 6 types 11 types 6 types 6 types (Mawryniaw) region Jhum Garo hills 3 types 5 types 13 types 8 types 7 types (Jongchetpara) region Broom Khasi hills No 1types No 2 types No (Khaid) region Areca nut Khasi hills No 1 type No No No (Nongtalang) region Areca nut Garo hills 1 types 2 types 4 types 2 types 2 types (Chengkompara) region Rubber Khasi hills No No No No No (Machokgre) region Source: Field work, 2012

13 Page Session 15-07 The relevance of population for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

320 308.43 (1991)

300 297.59 (1971)

280

260 256.58 (2081) 240 Gram / Day / Gram

220 211.49 (2001) 200

190.41 (2011) 180 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 Year

Figure 8 Meghalaya: Per capital Gross Availability of Locally Produced Rice

Table 6 Meghalaya: Per capita Gross Availability (PGA) of Rice, 2001 Regions PGA/Annum PGA/Day District (in Kg )* (in gram )* Khasi hills East Khasi Hills 15.67 43 West Khasi Hills 45.404 124.39 Ri-Bhoi 154.458 423.17 Jaintia hills Jaintia Hills 86.062 235.8 Garo hills South Garo Hills 104.872 287.32 West Garo Hills 113.665 311.41 East Garo Hills 200.621 549.64 Meghalaya (aggregate) 77.212 211.54

Table 7 Price of Areca nut Size of Areca nut Price 2011 2012 Big 1800 1000 Midium 1500 600 Small 1200 400 Source: Field work in Nongtalang, 2012

14 Page Session 15-07 The relevance of population for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

Figure 9 Food Systems in two different agricultural practices

Figure 7 Food Baskets (from upper left) in Jhum ; broom and rubber food system respectively.

15

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Table 8 Food sources in different food systems Sample Cereals Tubers Vegetables Leafy Meat Spices/ villages vegetables oil seed Jhum food Own Own Own prod Own prod, Hunt. Own prod system prod prod gathering Market Broom food PDS Market Market Gathering Market Market system and Market Areca nut PDS Market Market Gathering Market Market food system and Market Rubber food Market Market Market Market Market Market system Source: Field work, 2012

Table 9 Food consumptions patterns in different food systems Food system Item Jhum Broom Areca Rubber nut Cereals Millets Reg Nev Nev Nev Maize Reg Rare Rare Rare Rice Reg Del Del Del Wheat Nev Occ Occ Occ Tubers Colocasia Del Som Som Rare S. potato Reg Rare Occ Occ Tapioca Reg Rare Rare Rare Yam Reg Rare Rare Occ Potato Rare Reg Del Del Pulses and oil Red Nev Reg Reg Reg seed Gram Nev Occ Rare Rare Soyabean Som Rare Rare Rare

Sesamum Reg Rare Occ Rare Wild Som Rare Rare Nev meat Pork Occ Som Reg Som Beaf Occ Occ Nev Som Animal Chicken Occ Occ Rare Rare products (L) Chicken Rare Rare Som Som (F) Egg (L) Som Som Rare Rare

Egg(F) Rare Som Som Som Fish (L) Som Rare Rare Occ

Fish(F) Rare Occ Som Som

Milk Nev Nev Nev Rare 16 Note: Nev-Never; Rare-Rarely; Occ-Occasionally; Som-sometimes; Reg-regularly; Del-Daily Page Session 15-07 The relevance of population for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

References Ahemad, A. 2001. Social Geography . Jaipur: Rawat Publication. Alamgir, M. and P. Arora. 1991. Providing Food Security for All . IFAD studies in rural poverty No-1. London: Intermediate Technology Publications. Bareh, H. 1985. The History and Culture of Khasi People . Guwahati: Spectrum Publication. Barik, S.K, B. K. Tiwari. 2004. Land use and Status of Forests in Northeast India, In Joint Forest Management in Northeast India, ed. K. C. Malhotra, S.K. Barik, B. K. Tiwari, R. S. Tripathi, 10-21. Regional Center, National Afforestation and Eco-Development Board, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. Bhatt, B. P., A. Pattanayak, and P. Tondon. 2007. Shifting Cultivation: Issues and Strategies in the NEH Region. In Biodiversity and Its Significance, ed. P. Tondon, Yash P. Abrol and S. Kumaria, 262-273. New Delhi: I. K. International. Bhattacharyya, R., 2006. Foodstuffs and Population of North-East India. In Agriculture Food Security Nutrition and Health in North East India , ed. D. Basu, B. Francis and B. Datta Ray, 51-55. New Delhi: Mittal Publication. Bhowmik, S. 1986. Land and Economic development in the Hill Areas of North-Eastern Region. In Land use Pattern of North-East India , ed. BB. Dutta, 11-18. Ludhiana: Gagan Publishers. Borah, A. C. 2010. Impact of Small Scale Tea Cultivation on Rural Economy: A Case Study on Small Tea Growers of Suvasager District, . Transactions 32 (2): 119-125. Borthakur, D. N. 1992. Agriculture of the Northeastern Region- With Special Reference to Hill Agriculture . Guwahati: BeeCee Prakashan. Choudhury, D. 2005. Jhum stabilization and transitions in Agricultural systems, In Community Forest in Northeast India , ed. Mark Poffenberger, 19-28. South Lake Tahoe, UAS: Community Forestry International. Clarke, I. J. 1990. Mountain and Man: An Overview. In Mountain Population Pressure , ed. A. Ahmad, J. I. Clarke, C. B. Shrestha and A. Trilsbach,1-11. New Delhi: Vikash Publishing. Dahlman, C.T., W. H. Renwick and E. F. Bergman. 2011. Introduction to geography: people, places & environment . Prentice Hall. Das, B.N. 1979. Forestry. In Agriculture in the Hills , ed. B. Pakem, M. Miri, J.B. Bhattacharjee, P. Gupta, B. Datta Ray. Northeast India council for Social science Research, Shillong. Datta, B. 2011. North-East India and its Socio-cultural Milieu. In The Oxford Anthology of Writing from North-East India, Poetry and Essays , ed. T. Misra. New Delhi: Oxford. Department of Agriculture, Government of Meghalaya (GoM), 2006. Meghalaya Agriculture Profile 2006 , 3 rd Edition, Shillong, Meghalaya. Directorate of Economics & Statistics, GoM. 2003. Meghalaya Socio-Economic Review, Shillong, Meghalaya. FAO and WFP, 2010. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2010. FAO, UN, Rome. Fellmann, J, A. Getis, and J. Getis. 1990 (Reprint). Human Geography: landscape of human activity . Second edition. Dubuque: Wm. C. Brown Publishers. Fernandes and Pereira, 2005. Land relations and Ethnic Conflicts: The case of north eastern India. North eastern Social Research Center, Guwahati. GECAFS. 2005. Science Plan and Implementation Strategy. Earth System Science Partnership (IGBP, IHDP, WCRP, DIVERSITAS) Report No. 2, Wallingford. Goldsmith, A. K. 2006. Sustainable Resource Management and Modernization in the North East: Implication for Climate Change. In Climate Change and Tribal Sustainable living: Responses from the Northeast , ed. W. Fernades and N. G. D’Souza. North Eastern Social Research Center, Guwahati and Indian Network of Ethics and Climate Change, Vishakhapatnam. Gregory, P.J, J. S. I. Ingram and M. Brklacich. 2005. Climate change and Food Security. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences , 360 (1464): 2139-2148. Hussain, M. 2004. Food Security and North-East, Economic and Political Weekly , Vol. 39 (41): 4515-4516. Kar, P. C. 1982. Garos in Transition . New Delhi: Cosmo Publication. Khan, S.R., S. Kazmi, and Z. Ahmad. 2002. Structural Adjustment and Food security in Pakistan: An Aggregate Analysis. In Sustainable Agriculture and Food security: the impact of globalization, 73-88. ed. V. Shiva and G. Bedi. New Delhi: Sage Publication India Pvt. Ltd.

Lamin, H. 1995. Economy and Society in Meghalaya. New Delhi: Har-Anand Publication. Marak, Q. 2010. Food, Identity and Differences: An Anthropological Study among Garos . PhD Thesis, North-

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Martinez, S, M. Hand, M. Da Pra, S. Pollack, K. Ralston, T. Smith, S. Vogel, S. Clark, L. Lohr, S. Low and C. Newman. 2010. Local Food Systems: Concepts, Impacts and Issues . ERR 97, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. McMichael, P. 2010. Agrofuels in the food regime. The Journal of Peasant Studies 37 (4) : 609-629. Menon, P.; Deolalikar, A. and Bhaskar, A. 2009. India State Hunger Index: Comparisons of Hunger Across States . International Food Policy Research Institute, New Delhi; Welthungerhilfe, Germany; University of California, Riverside. Mohapatra, A.C., 2006. Agrarian Developments and Food security in the North-East Region. In Agriculture Food security Nutrition and Health in North East India, ed. Debashis Basu, B. Francis Kulirani, B. Dutta Ray, 13-19, New Delhi: Mittal Publications. MS Swaminathan Research Foundation and WFP. 2008. Report on the State of Food Insecurity in Rural India . MSSRF, Chennai. Patnaik, U. 2012. Capitalism and Production of Poverty. Social Scientist 40 (1-2), Jan-Feb: 3-20. Planning Commission. 2002. India Vision 2020 . Planning Commission, New Delhi, Government of India. Planning Department. 2009. Meghalaya State Development Report 2008-2009 . Government of Meghalaya, shillong. Rai. R. N. 1986. Land use under Shifting Cultivation, In Land use Pattern of North-East India, ed. BB. Dutta, 29- 40. Ludhiana: Gagan Publishers. Ramakrishnan, P. S. 2001. Ecology and Sustainable Development . New Delhi: National Book Trust. Ramakrishnan, P. S. 1993. Shifting Agriculture and Sustainable Development: An Interdisciplinary Study from North-Eastern India . New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Regional Center National Afforestation and Eco-Development Board (RC NAEB), NEHU. 2010. Socio-economic and Ecological Implications of Cash Crop Plantation in Community Forest Area in Meghalaya. Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. Rigg, J. 1987. Forces and Influences behind the Development of Upland Cash cropping in North-East Thailand. The Geographical Journal , Vol. 153, (3): 451-78. Sangma, M S.1995. Hill Societies . North East India Council for Social Science Research (NEICSSR). New Delhi: Omsons Publication. Sekar, I. 2010. Watershed and Commercial Agriculture: Linkage for transitioning Rural India. In Changing Rural India , ed. Babita Agrawal, 167-177. Jaipur (India): ABD Publishers. Sen, S. 1985. Social and State Formation in Khasi-Jaintia Hills . Delhi: B. R. Publishing Corporation. Swaminathan, M.S., 2006. Science and Technology for Sustainable Food Security. In Indian Agriculture in new Millennium: Changing Perception and Developing Policy, ed. N. A. Mujumdar and U. Kapila, 170-181. New Delhi: Academic Foundation. UN, 2010. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010 . United Nations, New York.

Appendix Appendix 1 Meghalaya: Growth rate of subsistence crops 1973-74 to 2010-11 Crops Region Rate (%) Khasi Hills -39.74 Rice Jaintia Hills -34.04 Garo Hills 31.26 TOTAL -3.89 Khasi Hills -18.81 Maize Jaintia Hills -92.74 Garo Hills 17.55 TOTAL -69.87 Khasi Hills -68.34 Millet Jaintia Hills -63.18 Garo Hills 92.94 TOTAL -15.65 Khasi Hills -23.8 Sweet Potato Jaintia Hills 0.56 Garo Hills 26.16 18 TOTAL -10.13 Page Session 15-07 The relevance of population for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

Khasi Hills 1240 Soyabeans Jaintia Hills 103.98 Garo Hills 280 TOTAL 258.14 Total Food Khasi Hills -35.76 Grain Jaintia Hills -33.31 Garo Hills 34.83 TOTAL -2.76

Appendix 2 Meghalaya: Regional growth of traditional commercial crops, 1973, 74 to 2010-11 Crops Region Rate (%) Areca nut Khasi Hills 25.68 Jaintia Hills 67.91 Garo Hills 2028.18 TOTAL 142.47 Citrus Khasi Hills 41.89 Jaintia Hills 42.38 Garo Hills 80.00 TOTAL 51.84 Turmeric Khasi Hills 364.15 Jaintia Hills 32.78 Garo Hills 12.80 TOTAL 38.21 Ginger Khasi Hills 52.57 Jaintia Hills 245.74 Garo Hills 27.67 TOTAL 34.75 Banana Khasi Hills 101.16 Jaintia Hills -24.95 Garo Hills 220.96 TOTAL 132.31 Pine apple Khasi Hills 29.94 Jaintia Hills -84.32 Garo Hills 153.68 TOTAL 60.71 Tapioca Khasi Hills 8.88 Jaintia Hills NA Garo Hills 243.26 TOTAL 118.28 Black pepper Khasi Hills 102650.00 Jaintia Hills NA Garo Hills TOTAL NA: Negligible Appendix 3 Meghalaya: Regional growth of non-traditional commercial crops Crops Region Rate (%) Potato Khasi Hills 23119.70 Jaintia Hills -82.47 Garo Hills 12.00

TOTAL 4.54 Rubber Khasi Hills 23119.70 19 Jaintia Hills NA

Garo Hills 15688.77 Page Session 15-07 The relevance of population for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

TOTAL 20931.47 Cashew nut Khasi Hills NA Jaintia Hills NA Garo Hills 13415.63 TOTAL 10197.62 Tea Khasi Hills - Jaintia Hills - Garo Hills 227.57 TOTAL 869.73 Coffee Khasi Hills 469.70 Jaintia Hills - Garo Hills 23650.00 TOTAL 1042.01 Note: Different base year has been used for different non-traditional cash crops. For detail see material and method section.

End note

1 The other copping strategies which have been adopted Meghalaya plateau includes stone quarry, small scale unregulated mining, migration to proximate urban spaces and others. 2 On a bright spring morning, I went to Wahkhen village of Khasi Hills to celebrate Shad-Lyngdoh-Raid-Wahkhen (Shad-Lyngdoh-Raid-Wahkhen is a spring festival of Wahkhen village, East Khasi Hills District, Meghalaya. The village is located around 50 km south of the state capital Shillong. It is occupied by about 350 Khasi households and unlike to the general state scenario most of them are following Niam-Tynrai religion (indigenous religious believe of Khasi tribe). The festival is geographically limited to the village only) with two of my local friends- Soni Bareh and Hiam Rambai. The village is situated in rugged hilly terrain and the agriculture of the village has totally transformed from Jhum to Broom grass plantation, including the most parts of Pynursula (Pynursula region of Meghalaya is located south of Shillong just above the War region. The detail about various vernacular cultural region of Meghalaya is delineated by many scholars like Nakane (1961), p. 20, 96; Soumen Sen (1985), p.17, 18 and Hamlet Bareh, (1985), p. 10) region of Meghalaya. Once upon a time, Jhum cultivation was the mainstay of livelihood and food security for the tribal people of region including the village. Today, a new agricultural landscape has evolved i.e. miles broom grass plantation in the cost of traditional Jhum cultivation in the village in particular and in Meghalaya in general. We reached the village around four hour of journey from Shillong (the state capital), including two hours of walking. The journey was tied some because of walking around two hour on the hill slope and all of us were hungry. Our host ( Kong ) could sense our hunger correctly and was hurriedly trying to wind up the preparation of lunch. I show through the concealment of the door curtain, Kong (the term ‘ Kong ’ is widely used among Khasi community of Meghalaya to address female member) was peeling up skin of raw tomatoes for salad and then, I told her not to peeling up (as we are so hungry). She answered me ‘these days, vegetable are coming from outside of our village and use of pesticide is very common in purchased vegetable and with skin it is unhealthy, there is a need of peel the tomatoes’. 3 Food security is defined in The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2010 . According to the report, “Food security exists when all people, at all times, physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Household food security is the application of this concept to the family level, with individuals within household as the focus of concern” FAO, WFP, 2010, p.8). 4 The term Jhum denotes a regional form of shifting cultivation practice in northeast India. This is also known as Swidden agriculture. 5 B. K. Tiwari (2003) has mentioned these changes as innovations in Jhum cultivation, for details see his article ‘Innovation in Shifting Cultivation, Land use and Land Cover Change in Higher Elevations of Meghalaya, India ’. 6 Re-War region is a vernacular cultural region of the plateau. This has been mentioned by Naken as ‘ War’ and by Tiwari et al as ‘south precipitous region’ (Naken, 1961: 96; Tiwari et al 2008: 84). 20 Page Session 15-07 The relevance of population for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

7 Food systems are a set of dynamic interactions between and within the biogeophysical and human environments that result in the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food (GECAFS, 2005, p. 9; Gregory et al, 2005, p. 2141). 8 Millet, maize and rice are the three important cereals used by the people of the area. Traditionally neither pulses are cultivated nor consumed in the plateau. Moreover the area under pulses and wheat are negligible. Soybean and sweet potato are also traditionally consumed by the people. Besides these crops, there are many other subsistence crops cultivated but data are not available. Department of Agriculture, GoM (2006) has mentioned the principal food crops of the state p. 18; also see Planning Department, GoM (2009), p. 238. 9 Often the principal aim of production is for the use of the producers and their kinship groups. For details see Fellmann et al (1985), p.240. 10 The New American Dictionary defined the term (locavore) as a local resident who tries to eat only food grown or produced within a 100 miles radius. But here we used the term to describe a situation where people mostly grow their own required food and hardly depend on others or on import. 11 These emerging modern needs were one of the important outcomes of ongoing social transformation in tribal societies. Spread of and consequent spread of modern education by missionary has brought significant transformation among the tribal societies of Northeast India. 12 It has been reported by elderly people of many villages visited by the researcher that as land is limited initially they were forced reduced Jhum cycle. But this act of reduction in jhum cycle could not sustain for long time, only after few years they found crops failed and family go hungry. So they were in search of some alternative agriculture. 13 According to Lamin the import of rice to the hills of Meghalaya from plains of Assam and Sylhet started as early as 1784 (Lamin, 1995: 81). 14 Therese are non-traditional rice growing areas but presently leading rice importing states in the coumtry mainly due to green revolution. 15 North-western and southern states have experienced four subsequent stages of agricultural development in India; see India Vision 2020, Planning Commission, 2002: 32. 16 Food produced, processed and distributed within a particular geographic boundary that consumers associate with their own community, (Martinez et al , 2010, p.51). 17 According to consumer price index released by Ministry of Labor, Government of India revealed that consumers in Meghalaya were the worst affected by soaring prices of consumer goods in the 2011-12 financial year. The news was published in The Shillong Times , May 24, 2012. 18 The land is not equally distributed among tribal. According to census 2001 about 80% of the farmers are marginal (0.05-1.00 ha.) and small farmers (1.00-2.00 ha.). According to NHFS, about 66% of rural household does not have ownership of agricultural land. Thirdly the proportion of agricultural labor is highest in Meghalaya among the all tribal dominated northeastern states. Lastly land distribution is sharply on clans lines.

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