Eco-technologies for agricultural and rural livelihoods in North East India

Abstract

About one-third of the total agricultural area in the Southeast Asia is under shifting cultivation. In North East India, where most of the populace comprises subsistence farmers largely depending on shifting agriculture, technologies in agricultural development that are based on high external inputs, become inappropriate and inaccessible. Technologies, therefore, need to adapt to local conditions based on the principles of low external input for sustainable agriculture and should also be pro-nature, pro-poor and pro-women-oriented. This article discusses about up-scaling of potential low-cost eco-technologies for improved crops yield in shifting agriculture, which continues to be a predominant livelihood for a majority of the upland communities in NE India and technological intervention as a possible entrepreneurship option for unemployed youths.