Arecanut replaced oranges in War Jaintia Region due to the lack of mulching and proper care given to the crops

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaApril 13, 2023

The Centre of Excellence for NRM and Sustainable Livelilhood, Meghalaya, organized a workshop on “Expanding Areas of Plantations of Areca Nut and Other Commercial Species in Meghalaya: Critical review of the changing landscapes with reference to their ecological impacts” on Thursday. The workshop aimed to explore the significant changes in land use and land cover in the state and its impact on natural resources and livelihood activities.

In his keynote address, Co- Chairman & Director Centre of Excellence for Natural Resource Management & Sustainable Livelihoods, MBDA Dr. S Ashutosh presented his ongoing study on land use and land cover change in Meghalaya, covering the entire state. He informed that the study analyzed seven grids of 100 sq. km area and will be completed using 20 to 22 grids covering 2022 sq km, which is 10% of the total geographic area.

Ashutosh apprised under the Community Led Landscape Management Project supported by World Bank estimated 49.61 lakh areca trees in the community forests in 161 CLLMP villages were planted in Garo Hills only.

David Gandhi, Consultant for SALT farming at MBMA, presented on the “Landuse in Meghalaya in the context of agro-horticulture and NRM – with sharing from his field experiences in Meghalaya and Manipur.

M Kharbani, during his presentation on “Critical review of the cnanging landscape, with reference to their ecological impacts Areca nut and other commercial species in Meghalaya”, presented the maintenance of the crop in a picture of an areca nut plantation. Monocropping is always detrimental and not encouraged. He also informed to promote diversity, crops with minimal shade like coffee, banana, coconut, mulberry, pepper, La met, etc., can be grown alongside arecanut.

Kharbani informed arecanut replaced oranges in War Jaintia due to the lack of mulching and proper care given to the crops. It was suggested to pay back a portion of the profit from the field to improve the soil.

Other presenters at the workshops includes Prof. B. K. Tiwari, former professor NEHU, Dept. of Environmental Studies on the topic “Extent, causes and impacts of expansion of cash crops (areca nut) plantation and possible solutions to their ecological impacts.”, Dr. N. Raju Singh, Scientist, Agroforestry, DSRE, ICAR on topic “Agroforestry: a diversifies land use system for livelihood improvement and climate change anf mitigation”, Dr. H. Siangbood, Project Scientist, MINR, MBDA on topic “Integration of Aromatic plants in different cropping system”, Shri. James T Kharkongor, DPD, Centre of Excellence for NRM & SL, MBDA on topic “A brief comparison on the impacts of commercial plantation in Garo Hills and Khasi Hills” , Dr. Lavinia Mary Dkhar, Technical Specialist-NRM, CoE for NRM & SL on topic “Adverse impacts of monoculture plantation ecosystems” and Shri Sanwar M Swamy (IFS), DFO, Silviculture.