Tuber Crops Based Farming System: A Way forward for Livelihood Options of Nicobari Tribes in Andaman & Nicobar Islands

The Nicobari tribal community is generally conservative as far as food resources are concerned. They mainly rely on coconut, tuber crops, pig and marine fisheries for their livelihood. The traditional method of cultivation and utilization of tuber crops by these people have been acquired from their ancestors. They use the virgin land for establishment of coconut plantations and they rarely practice mixed cropping involving coconut, tuber crops, spices and fruit crops due to lack of planting materials and scientific cultivation practices of tuber crops based farming system. Central Island Agricultural Research Institute (CIARI) has made an effort to impart scientific knowledge on tuber crops cultivation and utilization through participatory mode under All India Coordinated Research Project on Tuber Crops for past two years (2014-15 and 2015-16). The model comprises of 300 m 2 of fenced area in the vicinity of the tribal settlement and integrated with piggery unit at Harminder Bay, Little Andaman. After sensitization program on tuber crops based farming system under Tribal Sub Plan of AICRP on Tuber Crops, the farmers (15 members) were given the planting materials of elephant foot yam, ginger, poultry chicks and piglets. In addition, they also used their own seed tubers of Nicobari Aloo, Colocasia and setts of Cassava for tuber production. From the tuber crop based farming system the tribal farmers have generated an amount of ` 9,870 to ` 16,678 from crop component and from Pigs they generated approximately ` 21,000 to ` 66,500. The total income generated from the system ranged from ` 30,870 to ` 79,018 at Harminder Bay. From this farming system highest B: C ratio was recorded from pig farming (2.69) followed by ginger cultivation (2.11) and in the combination of pig and crops the B:C ratio was (2.36). The intervention has made visible impact like increase in income, livelihood improvement and employment generation of the tribal farmers and hence, more tribal youths have come forward to adopt the tuber crops based farming system as their livelihood options