By Matt Styslinger “I know all about food security,” says
Mitharam Maslai, a farmer from India’s Northeast highlands. “We
ate only pumpkin and bamboo shoots every year for two to three
weeks because we had run out of rice.” Using a traditional
‘slash and burn’ method of farming known as jhum, indigenous
villagers in this remote region were not producing enough rice
to feed their families for the entire year. To address this
problem, the International Fund for Agricultural Development
(IFAD) started a project to introduce new farming methods to the
region—emphasizing sustainable resource management—in the states
of Meghalaya, Manipur, and Assam. Environmental degradation was
deepening the problem—people, not surprisingly, depend on the
exploitation of natural resources to get them through the lean
periods. Forest fruits and vegetables, medicinal plants, timber,
and charcoal were often overharvested to supplement diets and
incomes, contributing to deforestation, erosion, and loss of
biodiversity. Northeast Indi