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Shifting Cultivation (Jhum): Features, Regions and Issues

1 July 20251 min read
AGRICULTURE & RURALShiftingCultivation (Jhum):Features, Regionsand Issues1 July 2025safalsetu.com

Why in the news

Shifting cultivation, called jhum in India, was in focus in July 2025 as a traditional farming system valued culturally but criticised for ecological cost.

Key facts

  • Swidden: forest patch cleared mostly by slash and burn; ash adds nutrients.
  • Crops: rice, maize, roots and tubers, grown until yields fall.
  • Tools: hoes and digging sticks only; subsistence purpose.
  • Fallow: usually longer than the cultivation spell.
LevelRegions
WorldTropical forests: Central and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia
IndiaHilly tribal areas of the Northeast, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh

Merits and concerns

  • Merits: cheap, low-input, tied to indigenous culture; long fallows aid biodiversity and curb erosion.
  • Concerns: deforestation, habitat loss, nutrient depletion and erosion when fallows shrink under population pressure.
  • Without regeneration it becomes destructive slash-and-burn farming.

Exam angle

  • Match local names: jhum, podu, chena.
  • Related term: swidden, the cleared plot.

Test yourself

1. In shifting cultivation, what is a cleared and cultivated forest patch called?

Notes define a swidden as a small forest patch cleared, often by slash and burn, and farmed briefly.

2. Which set lists local names of shifting cultivation in India, as per the notes?

The notes name jhum, podu and chena as local terms for the practice in tribal hills.

3. What turns shifting cultivation into destructive slash-and-burn farming, according to the notes?

When regeneration does not occur and overuse sets in, the practice becomes destructive.

This topic is part of Daily Current Affairs 1 July 2025 (15 topics).

All topics of the dayDay quizJuly 2025

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