Agrobiodiversity in Northeast India:
A Review of the Prospects
of Agrobiodiversity Management
in the Traditional Rice Fields
and Homegardens of the Region
Tapasi Das and Ashesh Kumar Das
Abstract Agrobiodiversity or agricultural biodiversity has become a major issue in
the past few years in light of the growing rate of biological diversity loss and habitat destruction. India is one of the world’s largest and oldest agricultural societies
and is one of the world’s eight centres of crop plant origin and diversity. At least
166 food/crop species and 320 wild relatives of crops have originated here, which
include rice, pigeon pea, turmeric, banana, jackfruit, mango etc. Since the agrobiodiversity in South-East Asia is mainly maintained by rural communities in traditional
farming systems—homegardens, shifting cultivation and rice fields, the majority of
the agrobiodiversity analysis in the tropics have been focused on important traditional farming systems—Home-gardens, shifting cultivation and rice ecosystems.
This paper has discussed the concepts of agrobiodiversity, its importance and the
threats to its conservation in the context of northeast India. Some case studies on
the agrobiodiversity conservation in the traditional home-gardens and the rice fields
of the north-eastern region of India are highlighted to understand the status of agrobiodiversity in the region and the problems faced by the farmers. Rice farmers in
northeast India maintain a diversity of rice crops which provide them the basis to
adapt crops to heterogeneous and changing environments and to provide them with
resistance to pests and diseases. Farmers in such traditional agricultural systems
have been known to retain ‘folk-varieties’ also known as ‘landraces’, ‘farmers’ varieties’, ‘local varieties’ or ‘traditional varieties’ which have been bred and selected by
farmers. Farmers in such areas maintain their farming systems on the basis of their
intimate local knowledge about the rice varieties and their adaptation to specific soil
quality and other environmental factors and even retain indigenous soil classification
systems (Folk Soil Taxonomy) in their farming systems. Reports from Barak Valley, Assam, India indicate that subsistence based small holder farmers are the main
T. Das (B) · A. K. Das
Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Assam University,
Silchar, Assam 788011, India
e-mail: tap75ster@gmail.com
A. K. Das
e-mail: asheshkd@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
N. Roy et al. (eds.), Socio-economic and Eco-biological Dimensions
in Resource use and Conservation, Environmental Science and Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32463-6_6
117
A Review of the Prospects
of Agrobiodiversity Management
in the Traditional Rice Fields
and Homegardens of the Region
Tapasi Das and Ashesh Kumar Das
Abstract Agrobiodiversity or agricultural biodiversity has become a major issue in
the past few years in light of the growing rate of biological diversity loss and habitat destruction. India is one of the world’s largest and oldest agricultural societies
and is one of the world’s eight centres of crop plant origin and diversity. At least
166 food/crop species and 320 wild relatives of crops have originated here, which
include rice, pigeon pea, turmeric, banana, jackfruit, mango etc. Since the agrobiodiversity in South-East Asia is mainly maintained by rural communities in traditional
farming systems—homegardens, shifting cultivation and rice fields, the majority of
the agrobiodiversity analysis in the tropics have been focused on important traditional farming systems—Home-gardens, shifting cultivation and rice ecosystems.
This paper has discussed the concepts of agrobiodiversity, its importance and the
threats to its conservation in the context of northeast India. Some case studies on
the agrobiodiversity conservation in the traditional home-gardens and the rice fields
of the north-eastern region of India are highlighted to understand the status of agrobiodiversity in the region and the problems faced by the farmers. Rice farmers in
northeast India maintain a diversity of rice crops which provide them the basis to
adapt crops to heterogeneous and changing environments and to provide them with
resistance to pests and diseases. Farmers in such traditional agricultural systems
have been known to retain ‘folk-varieties’ also known as ‘landraces’, ‘farmers’ varieties’, ‘local varieties’ or ‘traditional varieties’ which have been bred and selected by
farmers. Farmers in such areas maintain their farming systems on the basis of their
intimate local knowledge about the rice varieties and their adaptation to specific soil
quality and other environmental factors and even retain indigenous soil classification
systems (Folk Soil Taxonomy) in their farming systems. Reports from Barak Valley, Assam, India indicate that subsistence based small holder farmers are the main
T. Das (B) · A. K. Das
Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Assam University,
Silchar, Assam 788011, India
e-mail: tap75ster@gmail.com
A. K. Das
e-mail: asheshkd@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
N. Roy et al. (eds.), Socio-economic and Eco-biological Dimensions
in Resource use and Conservation, Environmental Science and Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32463-6_6
117