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Unusual weather conditions detrimental to agriculture; terracing and agricultural practices - whoever makes jhum land into irrigated terraces becomes owner |
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Halted. The climbing bamboo is not seeding on this side of the Sulen river, but a more immediate cause of scarcity is impending on account of the excessive rain in April and May which has prevented a great number of individuals from burning their jhums. The result is they cannot sow and certainly will not reap, and I fear there will be a very short harvest this year. Where sowing has taken place the crops are much ahead of what is usual, and there is a danger that too long a spell of fine weather while they are still young may burn them. Terraced cultivation badly needs pushing here, and though when tried it was rejected as too much trouble there seems now to be an inclination to take it up again and give it another trial. Mechangbung have imported a Kuki who learned how to use buffaloes in Manipur and are ploughing their one or two flat terraces near the river. Several villages asked for grants, both Naga and Kuki, and I have laid down the principle, observed by the Angamis but objected to by the Kachha Nagas, that whoever makes jhum land into irrigated terraces by his own efforts becomes the absolute owner. It will give the landless Kuki a chance of obtaining land and settling down. |
