Nagaland provides a first-hand experience of living biodiversity — amongst the last of the ‘hot spots’ left on our planet. The drive from Khonoma village through Dzulekie in Kohima district and then up to the border of the neighbouring Peren district offers a view of nature in all its pristine magnificence.
From the narrow road that winds its way along the high mountain ridges, the forests that climb up to their summit look like huge clumps of broccoli – dark green, dense and impenetrable. Within that jungle fastness lies an unimaginable treasure trove of infinite varieties of trees, creepers, medicinal plants, wild vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, flora and fauna.
The recent construction of the road linking Khonoma to Peren sadly, however, could well be the death knell of this natural forest. It may not survive the onslaught of ‘development’, with forest lands and natural resources increasingly pledged to fuel the engines of India’s proposed five trillion dollar economy.
The consequences of such ‘development’ are all too apparent when one crosses the Kohima district border and heads to Jalukie, a growing town and commercial hub within the Peren district. Here, the landscape changes to orderly plantations of teak, areca nut, rubber and in recent times oil palm. The land is dry, dusty and becoming inhospitable to human life. We see the adverse impact of monoculture cropping and the rising use of chemicals in the soil.
The Indian sub-continent has parts of four of the 36 global biodiversity hotspots — these are the Himalayas; Indo-Burma in the Northeast, the Andaman Islands, Sundaland in the Nicobar Islands and the Western Ghats. These rich biodiversity regions now face the threat of government development policies that are pushing oil palm and other monoculture plantations as cash crops, largely under corporate management.
The National Mission on Edible Oils with a special focus on the Northeast, Andaman and Nicobar, offers an unprecedented subsidy of Rs.11,040 crores, luring farmers who are unaware of the evidence on the downside of oil palm and thus unable to make informed decisions. Many of these plantations are replacing natural forests, wet paddy cultivation lands and regenerating jhum fields (slash-and-burn cultivation).
Some two decades ago Peren, largely inhabited by the Zeliang and other tribes, was also covered in dense, natural jungle. Farmers here practised paddy and jhum on community-held lands. However, over the last decade, changes in climatic patterns, gradual drying of water sources, reduction in soil fertility and decline in paddy production have prompted farmers to leave rice cultivation and envision new land use practices.
Depleting returns and lack of government support for the issues faced have led to small farmers selling their fields to the wealthier elites, including government officials who have a steady cash flow. Consolidating their land holdings, they established teak and rubber plantations and then transited to oil palm because of the hugely attractive subsidy it offered.
One such plantation owner is a government officer in Tening Block. He was amongst the first to grow oil palm in the area in 2015. Investing huge personal funds to buy 45 hectares, he planted 4,000 saplings purchased through Sevasaiss, a company based in Andhra Pradesh, introduced by the Nagaland Agriculture Department.
According to this farmer payments promised have been unduly delayed and they were not prepared for the initial investments required. ‘‘Had we known, we would not have got into this. The high capital cost cannot be sustained by poor farmers who do not have any other additional source of income”, he said.
Peren’s plantation owners were initially taken for training in oil palm cultivation in Hyderabad. Field visits to Mizoram in a similar landscape would have been more relevant, a farmer said. Farmers in Mizoram have now been growing oil palm for over a decade and have their own milling facility built by Godrej. Although it was advised that oil palm is best grown in the foothill areas, Mizo farmers also planted it in the higher reaches where the weather, road and transport conditions are not suitable, he noted.
The story so far, based on conversations with three different oil palm farmer groups in the Peren and Niuland districts, is one of company and government reneging on the assurances and promises they made. The original company they were dealing with and which had encouraged them, Sevasaiss, was abruptly replaced by the government.
Consequently, after five years, and at the time of the first harvest, farmers found that there were no buyers for the fruit bunches that were produced throughout the year. It was only in 2023 after an MoU was signed between Godrej and the Government of Nagaland that the farmers were told that the company would pay them Rs.10 per kg for their harvested fruit (in Assam the rate is Rs.8 per kg from the same company).
While many in Peren still await their first harvest, plantation owners are discovering that there are a number of hidden costs in the initial years before the harvest.
This requires a personal investment of around Rs. four to five lakhs. These costs eat into the profits the farmers had counted upon.
Labour costs for instance, in these parts are high (Rs.400 to 500 per person daily).
Oil palm plantations require labour to clear the land, to plant the saplings and need to be weeded twice a year. They also need regular clearing of undergrowth. Once planted, uprooting a mature oil palm tree requires hiring JCBs, which roughly costs Rs.2000 per hour. Women’s labour in the workforce has receded and male workers charge more because the harvesting of the thorny oil palm fruit is difficult work. Annual out-of-pocket costs thus mount to over Rs.one lakh. The subsidies promised to the farmers have not been very regular or paid on time.
In the oil palm plantation visited outside Jalukie, one saw evidence of the heavy use of a herbicide called Hijack, with empty bottles strewn around the plantation.
This herbicide containing glyphosate is used to control the proliferation of weeds. Its use is banned in the US as it is carcinogenic.
The plantation owners said that chemical fertiliser was applied in the first year by digging around the plant. “When we add fertiliser the leaves sprout so we see a positive impact. The green cover will make it a tourism spot, the plant is very attractive”, one said. In what used to be a bastion of organic cropping, the chemical contamination of the soil now will last decades. The farmers of Peren may well have missed the organic market bus.
The most challenging issue is access to water, for the oil palm, is a guzzler, with each plant requiring at least 250 to 300 litres per day as per government recommendation.
While rainfall from June to October has been fairly consistent, the impact of climate change is also being noticed with reduced water in rivers and streams. In the dry months, irrigation to the oil palms is now down to once or twice a week in the slope areas. The government has provided some farmers with one water tank and a pump.
(This is the first of a two-part series)
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect EastMojo’s position.
Also Read | Nagaland to get Integrated Business Hub & Innovation Centre in Dimapur