Aizawl: While the area of jhum cultivation in Mizoram decreased by 36 per cent that of wet rice cultivation increased by 28.4 per cent during last year, agriculture department said.
”While the area of shifting cultivation in 2010-2011 has decreased from 44,947 hectares to 28,562, the area of wet rice cultivation has increased from 9,446 hectares to 12,130 hectares,” a source in the department said.
At present, Mizoram produces only 25 per cent of the total rice consumption. Mizoram produces only 44,950 metric tonnes of rice, against the total consumption of 1,80,000 metric tonnes.
As the government declared bumper rice harvest year, more farmers took up wet rice cultivation.
The department targets to produce 52,000 MT of rice this year. It aims to increase rice produce per hectare of land in WRC from 1.6 MT to 2.5 MT and from 0.9 MT to 1.2 MT in jhum areas.
The Congress government’s flagship programme, New Land Use Policy basically aims to do away with the age-old traditional shifting (jhum) cultivation by providing sustainable land-based occupation to the farmers. (UNI)
