Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

Changes in Soil Fertility and Rice Productivity in Three Consecutive Years Cropping under Different Fallow Phases Following Shifting Cultivation

Wapongnungsang ., Chowlani Manpoong, S. K. Tripathi

International Journal of Plant & Soil Science · pp. 1–10 · Published 1 Jan 2019

10.9734/IJPSS/2018/46087

Abstract

Shifting cultivation commonly known as Jhum is a primitive and traditional practice carried out by Jhumiasfor centuries. Soil microbes play a vital role in regulating soil fertility and nutrient cycling in different terrestrial ecosystems. The main objective of the present study is to examine changes in soil properties (soil organic carbon, SOC; total nitrogen, TN; available phosphorus, Pavail; ammonium nitrogen, NH4-N; nitrate nitrogen, NO3-N; nitrogen mineralization, Nmin) and rice productivity for three years cropping phase in shifting cultivation stand with different fallow phases (3 years old, FL-3; 5 years old, FL-5; and 10 years old fallow, FL-10) in Mizoram. The results indicated that soil physico-chemical properties were significantly higher (p<0.05) in longer fallow (FL-10) compared to shorter fallow (FL-3). The rate of Nmin showed significant differences among seasons and showed significant increase in longer fallow (FL-10) compared to shorter fallows (FL-3 and FL-5). Rice yield and productivity showed significant increase from 3 years to 10 years. Further, soil properties and rice productivity showed significant decline from first year to third year cropping. It appears that the longer fallow have conserved better soil nutrients compared to shorter fallow. Additionally, the addition of leaf litter and fine roots had strong effect on increasing fertility and organic carbon (SOC) pool in soil that helps to enhance plant productivity in different fallow lands in hilly region of Mizoram.

Soil properties nitrogen mineralization rice productivity shifting cultivation fallow lands

Cited by 10

Two-decadal climate impacts on growth of major forest types of Eastern Himalaya

Rajdeep Chanda, Salam Suresh Singh, Ngangbam Somen Singh · Trees, Forests and People · 2024

Loss of Medicinal Plants due to Shifting Cultivation (Jhum) in Kiphire District, Nagaland, India

Pradeep Yadav · INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PLANT AND ENVIRONMENT · 2025

Impact of Shifting Cultivation on Phyto-diversity (Vegetation) under Different Land use Systems in Serchhip District, Mizoram, India

R. Lalnungrenga, Girish Chandra, M. Sankar · Ecology, Environment and Conservation · 2024

Livelihood and Carbon Management by Indigenous People in Southern Himalayas

Dil Kumar Limbu, Basanta Kumar Rai, Krishna Kumar Rai · Carbon Management for Promoting Local Livelihood in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) Region · 2019

Soil carbon stock in different land-use systems in the hilly terrain of Mizoram, Northeast India

Chowlani Manpoong, Wapongnungsang, S. K. Tripathi · Journal of Applied and Natural Science · 2021

Agrobiodiversity and agroecological practices in ‘jhumscape’ of the Eastern Himalayas: don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater

Dileep Kumar Pandey, P. Adhiguru, Kalkame Cheran Momin · Biodiversity and Conservation · 2022

Soil properties under different land use systems of Mizoram, North East India

Chowlani Manpoong, S.K. Tripathi · Journal of Applied and Natural Science · 2019

Slash-and-burn agriculture in southern Brazil: characteristics, food production and prospects

Thomaz Edivaldo, Staffan Rosell · Scottish Geographical Journal · 2020

Future projection of climate extremes across contiguous northeast India and Bangladesh

Ashesh Rudra Paul, Rajib Maity · Scientific Reports · 2023

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

0

Page views

0

PDF downloads

0

Outbound clicks

10

Citations

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

No views recorded yet.

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

No traffic recorded yet.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.