The Ao Nagas are one of the tribal communities from North-Eastern part of India. Agriculture is the main sources of livelihood for the Ao Nagas and their agricultural practices have economic as well as social and cultural value in their everyday lives. As such, they are largely dependent on agriculture and they rely on the agricultural productivity for their subsistence and livelihood. They have been efficiently practicing and engaging themselves in the traditional agricultural methods for survival needs. However, since recent years, there has been a noticeable change in the farming system where people are slowly but steadily withdrawing from the traditional practice of paddy cultivation and engaging themselves in integrated farming system where variety of cash crops are cultivated according to the seasons. Indeed never before had witness such practice, some of the Ao villages especially the Longkhum village has switch to all year round cultivation of different varieties of cash crops that enables to cater to the demands of urban centers such as Mokokchung, wokha, Zunheboto, and even Kohima town. It is therefore, in this context, the present paper attempts to examine the adoption of new methods of farming by the Ao Naga community of Nagaland. Moreover, it would further endeavour to understand whether such adoption to new method of farming has any economic impacts by way of income generation and improving their standards of living, and finally whether such practices are sustainable to their livelihood. At the same time, it attempts to look into the challenges and obstacles faced by the farmers in the process since it is altogether a new practice.

KEYWORDS: Agriculture, farming, sustainable livelihood, Ao Nagas.