A system that delivers
Under the taungiya method, resident labourers look after the plantation in exchange for which they are allowed to cultivate small tracts of land. The system was originally evolved by the indigenous people of Burma (present-day Myanmar) and was later adopted by several other countries such as Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Liberia. In India, the popularity of this method soared when Burma merged with the British Indian empire in middle of the 19th century. It was introduced by B R Wood, the then divisional forest officer, and widely practised by the forest department in Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Hardwar and Dehradun. A taungiya cultivator was given land for plantation after compliance with eight conditions such as the selection of trees and food-crops to be raised as well as the entire process of plantation. Any violation invited expulsion from the forest. These tracts lay between rows of plantation.
In the first year, barren soil is treated to make land cultivable. Seeds are sown in perfectly dug pits in the second and third years. The type of crops and vegetables to be sown is decided by the forest department. By the fifth year, saplings are tall enough to survive on their own. So workers shift to other places.
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