Studies on Tribal Farming in Nicobar Islands, India

Abstract

The Nicobarese were the largest tribal group inhabiting 12 islands with major concentration in Car Nicobar. As there is no reliable information on the biophysical set up, socioeconomic and farming system characteristics of these Islands, the study aims to derive baseline information on the above aspects, which is essential for any planning process. The agricultural production in Nicobar Islands is mainly dictated by rainfall. The soils are inherently acidic except in Car Nicobar and Katchal where neutral to calcareous soils are found. The tribes are living in a social system called tuhet and have no individual land rights. Majority (73.4%) of the household heads comes under active workforce with worker consumer ratio of about 60%. The coconut is the predominant crop occupying 84% of the agricultural area. On an average 235 coconut trees were owned by an individual household with values ranging from 10 to 1000. The major livestock were pig (82%) and goat (18%) reared in an extensive open semi feral system. The average annual income from farm enterprises is INR.103345 ($1694) majority comes from coconut. The average family expenditure is INR.76692 ($1257) with major expenses on food (54%), religious ceremonies, and children’s marriage besides household and personal maintenance including health cost. Remoteness and isolation, monopoly in copra marketing, tuhet system insisting sharing some part of income, lack of knowledge on scientific management of crops like vegetables, lack of enough native breeds of livestock were the major constraints for improving farm production in these Islands.