Agrobiodiversity in Northeast India: A Review of the Prospects of Agrobiodiversity Management in the Traditional Rice Fields and Homegardens of the Region

Abstract

Agrobiodiversity or agricultural biodiversity has become a major issue in the past few years in light of the growing rate of biological diversity loss and habitat destruction. India is one of the world’s largest and oldest agricultural societies and is one of the world’s eight centres of crop plant origin and diversity. At least 166 food/crop species and 320 wild relatives of crops have originated here, which include rice, pigeon pea, turmeric, banana, jackfruit, mango etc. Since the agrobiodiversity in South-East Asia is mainly maintained by rural communities in traditional farming systems—homegardens, shifting cultivation and rice fields, the majority of the agrobiodiversity analysis in the tropics have been focused on important traditional farming systems—Home-gardens, shifting cultivation and rice ecosystems. This paper has discussed the concepts of agrobiodiversity, its importance and the threats to its conservation in the context of northeast India. Some case studies on the agrobiodiversity conservation in the traditional home-gardens and the rice fields of the north-eastern region of India are highlighted to understand the status of agrobiodiversity in the region and the problems faced by the farmers. Rice farmers in northeast India maintain a diversity of rice crops which provide them the basis to adapt crops to heterogeneous and changing environments and to provide them with resistance to pests and diseases. Farmers in such traditional agricultural systems have been known to retain ‘folk-varieties’ also known as ‘landraces’, ‘farmers’ varieties’, ‘local varieties’ or ‘traditional varieties’ which have been bred and selected by farmers. Farmers in such areas maintain their farming systems on the basis of their intimate local knowledge about the rice varieties and their adaptation to specific soil quality and other environmental factors and even retain indigenous soil classification systems (Folk Soil Taxonomy) in their farming systems. Reports from Barak Valley, Assam, India indicate that subsistence based small holder farmers are the main managers and conservers of rice diversity with reports ranging from 38 to 25 rice varieties reported from different case studies of which records of traditional rice varieties ranged from 31 to 20. Traditional homegardens which are also an important ethnic agro-ecosystem of northeast India also play an important role in the conservation of agrobiodiversity in the region. Several varieties of fruits, vegetables, medicinal and aromatic plants are conserved in the homegardens of the region. Also there are few reports of wild plant diversity conservation in the homegardens which also have implications for the conservation of underutilized, wild and rare species in the face of the erosion of such species from the adjacent natural forests. However some problems such as land fragmentation, absence of labour, low economic incentives, low return from both the traditional rice farming and homegarden agroecosystem are resulting in a lower diversity of ‘landraces’ or ‘indigenous’ varieties. In view of the potential agrobiodiversity in the northeastern region it is essential to properly document them along with the socio-cultural practices and knowledge associated with them before they are lost to the conversion to modern agriculture or urbanization.