Imphal, January 06: The New Year has just set in but for the tribal farmers in the hill districts of Manipur, the headache has just begun.

With population growing at a fast rate coupled with an equally diminishing cultivable land, the tribal farmers have no other alternative but to blame themselves.

Reports from the hill areas have been doing the round that more and more farmers have given up their occupations not for any other reason but because land for farming have become rare "commodities".

A village head from Chandel district said that jhumming was no more practicable in the hill areas as things have come to the saturation point due to excessive exploitation of the forests.

He said that unlike wet-cultivation in the plains, the soil loses its fertility after it is farmed for two/three years.

The man said that there are no more "virgin" lands for jhumming as land in the district have been cultivated through generations and that today it has reached its saturation point.

In Tamenglong district, the farmers find solace in the plantation of oranges and teaks.

But these are long term perspectives.

Reports received from the district say that the series of calamities witnessed in Tamenglong district in the past few years have been adding to the woes of the people.

The bamboo flowering gave rise to the rodent menace and while measures were being put forward to deal with the calamity and to address the plight of the people affected, another calamity erupted in the district.

The latest being the insect onslaughts on the standing crops in the year 2004.Orange farmers also complained that they could not produce much fruits in this season.

They said that oranges used to help bringing good incomes in the past years.

The citrus fruits farmers want the authorities to do something in this regard.

"Celebrating Orange festival in a grand way does not and will not help improve the production of the fruit unless some serious steps are taken up by the authorities," said P Acham of Old Tamenglong.

Churachandpur, Ukhrul and Senapati farmers are no exception.

Potato plantation, however, at least has been the only consolation for the people of Tamenglong.

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