Characteristics Of Shifting Cultivation

Shifting cultivation, also known as slash-and-burn agriculture or swidden agriculture, is a traditional farming system that involves clearing land, burning vegetation, and cultivating crops for a few years before moving on to a new plot. The characteristics of shifting cultivation include:

  • People that practise shifting cultivation, cultivate crops to feed themselves.
  • People that practise shifting cultivation, cultivate a few cash crops in addition to annual crops like maize and millet, and cereal.
  • Due to their limited plots, people who practise shifting cultivation utilize family labour.
  • With no advancement and minimal care, people who practise shifting cultivation are dependent on nature and physical elements.
  • By being abandoned the land by the people who practise shifting cultivation, the land becomes fertile.
  • In shifting cultivation, once the fertility of land or soil is lost then people start to relocate from one area to another.
  • Shifting cultivators can be found where there are few people.
  • Shifting cultivators facilitate travel through shared ownership.

What is Shifting Cultivation? What are its Disadvantages?

Around the world, shifting cultivation has become a more popular farming technique, particularly in tropical regions. Because it involves growing crops on the ground that has been cleared of vegetation and given some time to rest before being utilized again, it is successful in many locations. 

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Shifting Cultivation

A farming practice known as shifting cultivation involves briefly cultivating a plot of land, leaving it unattended while the cultivator shifts to another plot. During this duration, the cultivator is allowed for the post-disturbance fallow vegetation to thrive. Some farmers utilize slash-and-burn farming as one aspect of their agricultural cycle, while others use field clearance without any burning, and some growers are entirely migratory and use no cyclical approach on a specific plot. The migrants leave the cleared land for another plot after growing vegetables and grains on it for two or three years. Slash-and-burn techniques are frequently used to clear the ground, and the ashes enrich the soil with potash. After the rains, the seeds are planted. This method is frequently employed in LICs (Low-Income Countries) or LEDCs (Less Economically Developed Countries)....

Examples Of Crops Grown

Crops that are grown on lands where shifting cultivation is practised are mentioned below:...

Characteristics Of Shifting Cultivation

Shifting cultivation, also known as slash-and-burn agriculture or swidden agriculture, is a traditional farming system that involves clearing land, burning vegetation, and cultivating crops for a few years before moving on to a new plot. The characteristics of shifting cultivation include:...

Process Of Shifting Cultivation

Shifting cultivators follow a process for practising shifting cultivation that is mentioned below:...

Advantages Of Shifting Cultivation

• Crops may be easily grown in shift farming after the slash-and-burn procedure. Because of this, shifting agriculture is sometimes referred to as “slash-and-burn” farming.• This type of agriculture is one of the most sustainable ones since it aids in the recovery of the soil’s lost nutrients, provided that no harm comes to it.• It promotes increased agricultural production and sustainability.• It slows down the degradation of the environment. • Being organic, it is a sustainable method of farming.• Shift cultivation is a method or technique for controlling weeds.• Shifting cultivation also plays an essential role in insect management.• By changing farming practices, soil-borne bone disorders are also abruptly decreased....

Disadvantages Of Shifting Cultivation

It can quickly result in deforestation since farmers just move on and remove another tiny area of the forest when the soil fertility runs out. Desertification and soil erosion are both common effects of shift farming. Raw sewage and oil residue make it simple for water contamination to happen in coastal locations. The intensity of land utilization is limited by the shifting farming method. The loss of biodiversity is a simple consequence. Watersheds are destroyed by it. Shift farming is not profitable....

Solution To Overcome Drawbacks

It may be preferable in such regions to farm the land for a shorter amount of time and abandon it before the soil completely depletes its nutrients. The possibility of overcoming these drawbacks is what makes it so appealing....

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