Operation-Wise Labour Absorption in Jhum cultivation, WRC and WTC Under Mokokchung, Dimapur and Phek Districts, Nagaland

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The paper made an attempt to examine the operation-wise labour absorption and also estimated the factors that determine the variations and the intensity of labour used per acre in three rice farming systems, namely jhum cultivation, wet rice cultivation (WRC) and wet terrace cultivation (WTC). Study revealed that all the three farming systems use more labour and less capital. Jhum absorbs the highest labour man days, among the three farming systems. Male labour absorption was found to be more than that of the female labour in all the farming systems, and both male and female labour absorption was highest under jhum cultivation. Land clearing was the activity that absorbed the highest male labour under jhum cultivation, with an average of 8.49 labour man days, while ploughing, levelling/manuring absorbed the highest male labour under WTC/WRC, with an average of 9.88 and 9.36 labour man days. On the other hand, the highest female labour absorption activity was weeding, with an average of 5.10 (jhum), 4.99 (WRC) and 4.6 (WTC) man days. The participation of family labour was found to be more under jhum cultivation, whereas use of hired labour was more under wet rice cultivation. Regression result shows that hired labour man days and total labour man days per acre in all the farming systems are negatively associated, with a significant level of 1 and 5 per cent each. Since rice cultivation is seasonal in nature, rainfall and timing is an important determinant of yield and the use of inputs like labour may depend not only on total amount used but also on timing of application.