COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TERRACE RICE CULTIVATION IN KOHIMA AND PHEK DISTRICTS OF NAGALAND

ABSTRACTRice being principal cereal crop and having significant importance in northeast region the terrace ricecultivation has been shown to be a better farming system in rice cultivation compared to jhumming. The presentstudy has been conducted in the Kohima and Phek districts of Nagaland to do a comparative study of themanagement practices and constraints faced by the 160 respondents by opting a purposively stratified randomlysampling technique. The respondents of both districts had similar package of practices in management differedbetween the selected districts with varying use of machineries, spacings and pest management methods. The averagearea and production of terrace rice per household were higher in Kohima district as compared to Phek district. T-test revealed a significant difference in the productivity of rice where Kohima had higher productivity. Regressionanalysis revealed area and pest management as the independent variables having significant effect on theproduction in both the districts. Less remunerative, less inputs and others consisting of pests and climatic factorswere the most common problems faced by the terrace rice farmers in both districts while financial support, linkingwith government schemes / banks, others consisting of agri link roads construction and agriculture and allieddepartments intervention were the most relevant measures to promote terrace rice cultivation in both the districts.