Friday, March 29, 2024
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Contract Farming in Meghalaya: The Hidden Dangers to Indigenous Farmers

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Bhogtoram Mawroh

The farmer’s protest against the three Farm Laws has gone through many twist and turns. While it seemed like it might suffer a severe setback because of the January 26 incident it bounced back spectacularly after Rakesh Tikait’s, (a prominent farmer union leader), impassioned appeal. In Meghalaya, solidarity protests did take place in support of the farmers by Workers Power of Meghalaya (WPM) and Meghalaya and Greater Shillong Progressive Hawkers and Street Vendors Association (MGSPHSVA). The public debate on the issue though, is not as passionate as in other parts of the country, presumably because of the impression that the Laws will not affect the farming community of the State. That is not accurate and one law in particular, viz., The Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, will bring a great deal of transformation to the agricultural landscape of the State with deleterious consequences on the local indigenous farming communities.

Indigenous farmers in Meghalaya practise a variety of farming systems to produce food for self-consumption and surplus for the market. Jhum or shifting cultivation (which is also termed as rotational farming) is one of such systems which is still being practised by many in the State. A participatory mapping exercise done in 28 villages of Meghalaya by the North East Slow Food and Agrobiodiversity Society (NESFAS) as part of the project “No One Shall be Left Behind Initiative: Biodiversity for Food, Nutrition and Energy Security, Meghalaya and Nagaland” supported by the Rural Electrification Corporation revealed that more than 80% of the villages and 70% of the households still practise jhum. The public perception of jhum however, has not been positive with Sixth Schedule itself calling for ‘… regulation of the practise of jhum and other forms of shifting cultivation’. It has been particularly blamed for forest degradation and soil erosion. However, in recent times the debate has transformed with jhum being seen as an ally to biodiversity and landscape conservation rather than the other way round. An indication in the change of national policy perception is the 2018 NITI Ayog, ‘Report of Working Group III Shifting Cultivation: Towards a Transformational Approach’.

Some of the main policy level suggestions made in the aforementioned report are: garnering authentic data on jhum, improved land use planning, amend credit guidelines to allow jhum cultivators access financial resources and most importantly categorise jhum “…as distinct land use, recognising that it is both an agricultural and forest management practice conducted on the same plot of land but at sequentially separated times.” The last point is very important because it shifts the debate from jhum destroying forests to actually being very valuable to ecosystem services because of its landscape management approach. In fact the report mentions that drying of water sources, decline in soil fertility, reduced availability of fuel wood, fodder and wild edibles are the outcome of replacement of jhum by agricultural intensification. The fallows under jhum in fact should be categorized, the report states, as ‘regenerating fallows’ which in time will become secondary forests and add to the forest cover of an area. Another negative outcome of decline of jhum is increased food insecurity. The report mentions that in order to manage jhum, government schemes have mostly prioritized cereal and plantation crops causing a reduction in diversity of crops. This has severely limited availability of food crops and compromised food availability during the gestation periods leading to food insecurity.

Research conducted by NESFAS in Khapmaw and Rasong (villages located in Mawkynrew Block, East Khasi Hills District) revealed that both villages cultivated and harvested more than 200 food plants from the landscape, majority of which came from their jhum fields. In fact the farmers cultivated 28 varieties in Khapmaw and 23 varieties in Rasong of starchy staples, viz., potato (phan), taro (shriew), millet (krai), maize (riewhadem), sweet potatoes (phankaro), cassava (phandieng) and Job’s tears (sohriew) in their jhum fields. Food security is not just about the quantity but also the quality which can be assessed by the consumption of at least 5 of the 10 food groups, viz., as defined by starchy staples; pulses; nuts and seeds; dairy; meat, poultry and fish; egg; dark green leafy vegetables; vitamin A rich fruits and vegetables; other vegetables and other fruits, as defined by FAO. All the 7 food groups based on plants were available from the jhum fields. There were other sources of food from the landscape, viz., homestead garden (kper), terraces (bun) and forest (khlaw). However these sources neither had the diversity or quantity to match the produce from jhum.

Covid-19 has demonstrated the importance of a resilient immunity to thwart the virus. In their 2004 paper ‘Biocultural Diversity in the Sustainability of Developing Country Food Systems’ T John and BR Sthapit have stated that biodiversity loss and nutrition transition has resulted in an outbreak of type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, obesity, cancer and other chronic diseases. People who had pre-existing conditions were particularly vulnerable to Covid-19 and had high fatality rates. The reduction in jhum will bring about tremendous loss of agrobiodiversity present in the system and with it the pandemic of hidden hunger the ‘lack of essential micronutrients, i.e., vitamins and minerals’. This leads to a decline in immunity and makes individuals vulnerable to various forms of ailments, something which Covid-19 has demonstrated to be very fatal.

There is another impact that contract farming will have which will be devastating to the local indigenous community, i.e., erosion of traditional land tenure system and promotion of privatisation. According to the NITI Ayog report government programs and schemes designed to replace jhum have led to the erosion of traditional institutions and customary norms resulting in increasing elite capture and a rapid erosion of traditional access and benefit sharing frameworks. This has led to rise in private property regime and shrinking of land available to jhum leading to ‘distorted jhum’, i.e., reduced fallow period. Contract farming envisaged under ‘The Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill’ will lead to increase privatisation of land, especially on which jhum is being practised. This will further accentuate the already acute landless problem among the indigenous community in the State. Also instead of food crop the hallmark of jhum, cash crops, i.e., plantation crops will be promoted. The NITI Ayog report has specifically mentioned plantation crops as leading to food insecurity. In conjunction with already existing high landlessness this will increase households’ vulnerability to various threats.

Change in property regime has another component. The Sixth Schedule and The Meghalaya Transfer of Regulation (Act) 1971 were brought specifically to prevent land alienation of the local indigenous community to outsiders. Contract farming on a large scale will lead to consolidation of land holdings under the tribal elites which will then be transferred to the big corporations for whose benefit the three Farm Laws were legislated. Land will remain with the local community only in name. With traditional access rights gone this will be a death blow to the territorial rights of the indigenous people of the State.

A prelude to what could await Meghalaya can be gauged from the 2018 article ‘No country for women: The dark side of palm oil production in Mizoram’ by Purabi Bose. In this article the role and importance of female farmers got reduced drastically with the introduction of palm oil plantation as a substitute for jhum. Decline in food security and biodiversity has already become apparent to the local community. And with the attendant land titling i.e., introduction of private property regime, women have been left out of ownership rights and land use decision making. Even in Meghalaya (from personal discussions) it has been reported that cash cropping has actually led to diminished decision making role of women in spite of it being a matrilineal society.

The three Farm Laws, especially, ‘The Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill’, will bring about a great change in the agricultural landscape of the State. This change, however, will not be a positive one with the greatest impact falling on jhum and families depending on it. The outcome, though, will not be limited to this group but will put into motion events which will prove a threat to the rights of the indigenous communities of the State itself.

About the writer: Bhogtoram Mawroh is a Senior Associate, Research and Knowledge Management at NESFAS and can be reached at [email protected]

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