What is Shifting Cultivation and its extent in the country?.
Shifting cultivation (Jhum cultivation) is a practice of burning off natural vegetation, planting cultivated crops until soil fertility is exhausted, abandoning the site, moving (shifting) to new site ard returning to an earlier abandoned area that has re-grown the natural plant cover, and beginning the cycle again. It is estimated that 22.78 lakh ha. is affected by the problem of shifting cultivation in the country. 19.91 lakh. ha. is located in North Eastern region, which is about 84% of the total problem area.
