Preventing soil degradation in shifting cultivation using integrated farming system models

Abstract

Integrated farming system (IFS) based shifting cultivation reduces soil erosion and outperform in terms of productivity and income generation in North-Eastern Hills of India. To address this hypothesis, an experiment was conducted at Jharnapani, Nagaland, India with five treatments, viz., natural vegetation (NV), animal-based IFS (IFA), horticulture-based IFS (IFH), traditional shifting cultivation (TS) and traditional shifting cultivation with minor interventions (TSM). The soil moisture (34%), available N (23%), soil organic carbon (35%), bacterial (56%) and fungal (54%) counts decreased after burning of natural vegetation. Burning increased soil pH (10%), EC (131%), available P (62%), and available K (53%) for a short period. Improved integrated farming system models such as IFA and IFH were found to reduce soil erosion (34–48%) and loss of SOM (26–51%), N (33–45%), P (19–54%) and K (27–51%) compared to the traditional system (TS). Moreover, the improved models like IFA and IFH had a higher net return (0.07–52% higher) compared to TS. Considering all these facts, IFA/IFH can be recommended for the North Eastern Hill region based on suitability of altitude, socio-economic status of the farmers, farmers’ preference and demand in the local market.