Any one can tell me about the
Shifting cultivation
Share
Sign Up to our social questions and Answers Engine to ask questions, answer people’s questions, and connect with other people.
Login to our social questions & Answers Engine to ask questions answer people’s questions & connect with other people.
Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link and will create a new password via email.
Please briefly explain why you feel this answer should be reported.
Any one can tell me about the
Shifting cultivation
Andrew Pel
Shifting cultivation systems are ecologically viable as long as there is enough land for long (10–20 years) restorative fallow, and expectations of crop yield and the attendant standards of living are not too high. These systems are naturally suited for harsh environments and fragile ecosystems of the tropics. That is why attempts at finding viable alternatives to shifting cultivation have met with only limited success. There are several soil-related and climate-related constraints (Table 1) that must be alleviated. These constraints lead to severe problems of soil degradation upon conversion from shifting cultivation to mechanized intensive agriculture. Consequently, many large-scale mechanized farming schemes introduced in the humid tropics have been a failure
Andrew Pel
Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system, in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily then abandoned and allowed to revert to their natural vegetation, while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cultivation is usually terminated when the soil shows signs of exhaustion or, more commonly, when the field is overrun by weeds. The length of time that a field is cultivated is usually shorter than the period over which the land is allowed to regenerate by lying fallow.
Andrew Pel
Shifting agriculture, system of cultivation that preserves soil fertility by plot (field) rotation, as distinct from crop rotation. In shifting agriculture a plot of land is cleared and cultivated for a short period of time; then it is abandoned and allowed to revert to its natural vegetation while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cultivation is usually terminated when the soil shows signs of exhaustion or, more commonly, when the field is overrun by weeds. The length of time that a field is cultivated is usually shorter than the period over which the land is allowed to regenerate by lying fallow.
Andrew Pel
Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which a person uses a piece of land, only to abandon or alter the initial use a short time later.
This system often involves clearing of a piece of land followed by several years of wood harvesting or farming until the soil loses fertility.
Once the land becomes inadequate for crop production, it is left to be reclaimed by natural vegetation, or sometimes converted to a different long term cyclical farming practice.
This system of agriculture is often practised at the level of an individual or family, but sometimes may involve an entire village.
An estimated population exceeding 250 million people derive subsistence from the practice of shifting cultivation, and ecological consequences are often deleterious.
Andrew Pel
For thousands of years, and continuing today, native peoples of the Amazon basin have practiced traditional shifting cultivation, which combines farming with forested habitats. Shifting cultivation, sometimes called swidden or slash and burn, is commonly found throughout the Amazon and other tropical regions worldwide. Shifting cultivation systems are designed to adapt to the soil and climatic characteristics of the Amazon basin- low soil fertility, high precipitation, and fast leaching of nutrients.