Fostering Climate Resilient Upland Farming Systems in the Northeast (FOCUS) Project, Nagaland

Strategic Objective 2: Make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable

Objectives: To achieve environmental sustainability and profitability of the farming systems in hill areas

Description: Nagaland is a predominantly agricultural state, with agriculture (including livestock) accounting for 22 per cent of State GDP (2016-17) and providing employment for over 60 per cent of the population. Just over half of land area of the State is covered by forests, with the cropped area being only 23 per cent - of which only 15 per cent is irrigated. The State has only a small area of plain land, and shifting cultivation (jhum) is the predominant farming system in the highlands across the State. This is also the principal source of rural livelihoods with 70 per cent of the villages and almost half of rural households practising jhum. A total area of about 940 sq km is cleared for jhum each year. Cultivation of this land is usually continued for two years, followed by a fallow period of around seven years. With a typical jhum cycle of nine years, around 51 per cent of the total land area of the State is covered by the jhum system, including much of the land classed as under forests. This form of cultivation is highly labour intensive, but crop yields are low and vulnerable to variations in rainfall. However it is a system that enables poor quality soils on steep slopes to be farmed by utilizing organic matter that has accumulated during the forest-fallow period.

Conscious of the above challenges, the government of Nagaland has sought to promote climate-resilient and remunerative agricultural practices through the twin approaches of: systematically aligning jhum cycles to the natural regeneration cycle of forests; and simultaneously encouraging sedentary agriculture wherever possible. The overall goal of the Fostering Climate Resilient Upland Farming Systems in the North East (FOCUS) Project is to increase household agricultural income of 137 000 households in Nagaland to enhance their resilience to climate change. This goal would be achieved through the development objective of increasing the environmental sustainability and profitability of farming systems practiced by highland farmers.

The Technical Assistance (TA) by FAO responded directly to practical ramifications of the economic transition and rural sector processes underway in the State of Nagaland. The Technical Assistance combined gender-sensitive professional support and institution building, in tune with local stages of development in the rural sector, with research and information-sharing. This TA consultancy made optimum use of FAO’s accumulated experience and technical know-how,on issues relating to animal husbandry, crop productivity and process/training methodologies; farmer education and farmer institutions at local, state and national levels, as well as the Asia region.

The TA improved the development and delivery of agriculture and animal husbandry knowledge by designing training material and tailor-made curricula for introducing innovative methodologies. Training was targeted at farmers as a mechanism to introduce improved agronomic and animal husbandry practices. FAO also designed the MIS system for the project.

Donor: Government of Nagaland

Expected Outputs:

• Outcome 1: Improved farmers’ capacities to manage upland farming sustainably
• Outcome 2: Increased volume of marketed crops and livestock, with improved returns to producer
• Outcome 3: Effective and evidence based project management