Indigenous soil and water conservation practices prevailing among the tribal farmers of Mizoram

The study was conducted to identify the prevailing indigenous soil and water conservation practices among the tribal farmers of Mizoram. Out of eight agricultural districts in Mizoram, seven agriculturally important districts have been selected. The data were collected by executing PRA tools. One community development block from each district and two villages per block were selected randomly. The sample size comprised of 70 key informants and 420 farmers. Surface seeding, no till or pot holing and mulching were major indigenous agronomic soil conservation practices followed by the farmers in every part of Mizoram. However, some other practices like adjustment of sowing time in such a manner that when the maximum amount of rainfall occurs, there is enough ground cover. Mixed cropping, inclusion of fast growing legumes and use of maize stalk to make trash lines were also practised by them. Popular mechanical indigenous practices followed for soil and water conservation were stone bunding, pit digging, earthen bunds, traditional ditches, ridges and indigenous method of terrace making. Further, they store water at the farm for lean season in the traditionally made water reservoir.