Valuation of Alder based farming system in Nagaland
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Date
2018-07
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College of Post Graduate Studies in Agricultural Sciences, Central Agricultural University , Imphal
Abstract
Valuation of the environment is necessary for achieving greater sustainability, assessing management efficiency and make possible to include the non-measurable environmental impacts in terms of cost benefit analysis. Hence, the present study was conducted to measure the monetary value of the goods and services provided by the alder based farming system (AFS) at Khonoma village under Kohima district in Nagaland. To study the AFS, two FGDs were conducted in the village and in each FGD, 30 farmers practicing the AFS participated. The area under AFS at Khonoma is approximately 900 ha where the farmers practiced total 23 combinations of different crop mix but three crops mix (potato – maize + naga garlic) were followed by majority of the farmers. The current fallow period reduced from 10-20 years to 5-7 years due to the transition from subsistence farming to commercial farming and population pressure. Direct market price and preventive expenditure method under the revealed preference approach was used to measure the economic value of the goods and services provided by the system. The estimated number of alder trees per farm was 88 and the density was 183 alder trees/ha. The farmers harvested on an average of 7.99 m3 of firewood per farm and the estimated gross return from firewood was `17033.00/farm and `35485.42/ha. The estimated value of the goods (biomass) provided by the system was `38948.74/farm and `3.86 lakh/ha. The estimated value of the nitrogen (N) contributed naturally by the alder trees was `3208.95/farm and `7073.70/ha. If urea would have been applied in the absence of the alder trees, the estimated cost of lime to ameliorate the soil due to the application of urea would be `10656.00 to `12835.80/farm and `22200.00/ha to `26741.25/ha and the estimated associated average environmental damage cost from emission of N2O would be `14.86/farm and `32.53/ha. The total value of the services provided by the alder trees at Khonoma ranged from `14936.81/farm to `17169.61/farm and `30521.59/ha to `35171.82/ha. Hence, it can be concluded that the system sustained for decades due to its importance in terms of goods and services it provides, and the villagers of Khonoma understand it. Thus, the AFS has the potential to be replicated in other jhum areas through dissemination of knowledge on alder tree management.