Technologies for Organic Management of crops in North East India

Abstract

In North Eastern hill region of India, organic farming is a socially acceptable and environmentally sound food production system for the fragile hill ecosystem. Jhum farmers rely on inherent soil fertility due to deposition of nutrients upon decomposition of organic matter and nutrient fixation by various microbes. Farmers in the region have been practicing such cultivation system for the centuries, though with low productivity and income. Organic farming is the basis for producing healthy food crops for healthy living and it is the natural way of producing food. But due to increase in population, the use of chemical fertilizers increased manifold in India. Fortunately the use of chemical fertilizers in the hilly areas of the North Eastern Region remained negligible compared to the plains areas of this region.