Gender Dimensions of Mountain Agriculture: A Note on Arunachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

Agriculture in Arunachal Pradesh, a state located in the eastern Himalayas, used to be primarily need-based. Slash and burn agriculture, locally called jhum, was the foundation of the traditional economy. In the past decades, agriculture in the mountain areas has undergone significant change. This shift from need-based to commercial agriculture has been accompanied by a shift from collective to private rights over land. This paper argues that such changes in the mountain agriculture systems are better understood as a gendered process of social and economic transformation. Agrarian change has affected men and women in Arunachal Pradesh in different ways. Women farmers continue to work in agriculture, but their rights are gradually getting eroded as a result of the commercialisation of the economy.