Land Use Change Effects on Soil Physical and Biochemical Properties during Wet and Dry Season in Forest and Shifting Cultivation (Jhum) Sites in Northeast India

Abstract

Land use change is among the most serious concern in northeast India because of widespread practiced shifting cultivation locally called “Jhum”. This practice involves slashing and burning of plant biomass in a piece of forest land and cropping for few years (ca. 1-2 years) followed by land abandonment for 5-30 years to resume soil fertility. This study assesses the changes in soil physico-chemical and biochemical properties in forest and jhum land in wet to dry seasons in Mizoram, northeast India. A significant decrease in physico-chemical properties (e.g., 9-25%) and biochemical properties (15-39%) of soil in current Jhum land compared to forest land. This decrease was more pronounced in the dry period than in the wet period. The results showed that land use change negatively impacted the physico-chemical and microbiological properties of the soil. Notably, the transformation from forest to jhum land led to a decline in soil organic matter stocks, which serve as a crucial ecological indicator for assessing changes in soil quality resulting from forest clearance or crop cultivation. Therefore, sustainable land management policies need to be developed keeping such things in mind, such as agroforestry and farm forestry, in which the farming system grows trees alongside agricultural crops and animals on the same land management units.