Full Answer
What are the disadvantages of shifting cultivation?
This method is responsible for reducing the soil-fertility of crops as the land is abandoned when the soil is exhausted. Shifting cultivation causes a high national waste as it converts the green land into a barren land. The land takes many years to replenish just at the cost of providing yield for 2 to 3 years.
What is the meaning of shifting cultivation?
Shifting cultivation is a one lands clearing mode of farming or a slash and burn strategy. It leaves only stump and large trees in the farming area after the standing vegetation has been cut down and burned. The ashes enrich soil. Cultivation on earth after clearing of the land is often accomplished by a hoe or not necessarily by plough.
What should be done to prevent the shifting of cultivation?
Farmers should be given education so that they can understand the harmful effects of shifting cultivation. Afforestation should be stated again to replenish the large abandoned are of land. Close monitoring of the land should be done to keep a check on the land under such cultivation.
Why is shifting cultivation banned in India?
Shifting cultivation is an agricultural practice in which a piece of land is farmed on, only to be abandoned later after an initial use. Shifting cultivation is banned because its practice is largely harmful for forests. Usually forests are burnt in order to make way for new farmland and this can cause uncontrollable forest fires.
Why shifting cultivation is declining nowadays?
Shifting cultivation, a resource-based subsistence farming, is no longer relevant because of the large population and its growing demands. The system is destabilized by long cultivation and short fallow periods.
What is two reasons why shifting cultivation is expected to diminish?
(1) Shifting cultivation is expected to diminish because many new agricultural techniques and inventions such as genetically enhanced seeds, plows, tractors, irrigation systems, and many other things have made other types of agriculture more efficient.
What are the two future challenges for shifting cultivation?
Challenges to shifting cultivation include unseasonal and erratic rainfall, reduction in duration of fallow period due to pressure on land, reduction in yields due to decline in soil fertility, lack of interest among the younger generation in practicing it among others.
What are the disadvantages of shifting cultivation?
Disadvantages of shifting cultivation: Leads to deforestation • Loss of fertility of a particular land • Leads to Soil erosion • Burning of trees causes air pollution • Insufficient cultivation of crops for a large population.
What problems did shifting cultivation?
The British wanted the shifting cultivators to settle down and became peasant cultivators. But settled plough cultivation is not easy in areas where water is scarce and the soil is dry. In fact, shifting cultivators who took to plough cultivation often suffered. Their fields did not produce good yields.
What is the future of shifting cultivation?
- Borneo and Sulawesi: Shifting cultivation is expected to disappear sometime between 2030 and 2060. - India and Bangladesh: Shifting cultivation is estimated to disappear by 2030. - Papua New Guinea: Shifting cultivation may persist well into the second half of this century, perhaps even until 2090.
How is shifting cultivation in danger?
It also causes loss or deterioration of forest cover leading to soil erosion and degradation of catchments of rivers and other water bodies. In India, this pernicious practice is still in vogue on an estimated 1.73 million hectares, largely in the ecologically fragile hilly terrains in the Northeast.
What are the two types of shifting cultivation?
The different forms of shifting cultivation described include slash-and-burn type of shifting cultivation, the chitemene system, the Hmong system, shifting cultivation cycle in the Orinoco floodplain, the slash-mulch system, and the plough-in-slash system.
What is the threat in the long run caused by shifting cultivation?
The "problem" of shifting cultivation, which is accused of destroying forest resources, being uneconomical, leading to destruction of watersheds, erosion, desertification, etc., has already been the subject of two other case studies in this series (numbers 6 and 8).
What are the disadvantages and advantages of shifting cultivation?
Simple growing method, small investment, no need of animal labour power, reduce incidences of soil borne disease and pest management are the main beneficial aspects on one side whereas on the other side, destroying habitats of wild animals, taking our life element: oxygen, large-scale deforestation and soil and ...
Why is shifting cultivation no longer relevant?
Shifting cultivation, a resource-based subsistence farming, is no longer relevant because of the large population and its growing demands. The system is destabilized by long cultivation and short fallow periods. There is a need to transform shifting cultivation to sustainable intensification.
What is shifting cultivation?
Shifting cultivation, also referred to as slash-and-burn cultivation, is a system practiced mostly in wetter miombo woodlands, the most extensive ecoregion in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It is unique in that crops are grown in a field covered by ashes made from burning piles of branches obtained by lopping and chopping trees from an area (outfield) 10 times larger than the ash-covered field. The piles of wood are burned just before the onset of the rainy season to kill pests and pathogens in the soil and to fertilize the field with the ashes. A crop, usually an annual one such as millet, is sown in the ash without tilling the soil. In the second year, a cassava crop, which matures over a 2–3 year period, often succeeds millets before the ashed field is abandoned to fallow. Although other kinds of vegetation occur in the area, local people often prefer setting up their fields in miombo woodlands. It is unclear whether this preference is based on differences in nutrient content available from the trees or differential soil responses in areas with different vegetation types. In Zambia, for instance, (Chidumayo, 1996a) highlighted different vegetation cover characteristics of forest areas. They include – beside the Brachystegia, Julbernardia, and Isoberlinia species—the Kalahari woodland, which is found on Kalahari sands in the region. This woodland is dominated by Guibourtia, Burkea, Brachystesia, Isoberlinia, Julbernardia, and Ricinodendron species. Other types of woodlands are the Mopane and Munga woodlands mainly characterized by Colophospermum and Acacia species. There are also the grassland vegetations that include wetland and dambos around ephemeral rivers.
How does bush fallowing work?
The bush fallowing practice involves cultivation of parcels of land on a rotational basis, because a piece of land gets exhausted after two or three successive periods of cultivation. In the forest agroecological zone in particular, there is close relationship between the soil and vegetation in terms of nutrient exchange. Clearing of the vegetation breaks this normal cycle, and the soil loses its nutrients through leaching. The farmer is therefore compelled to abandon the deficient land for it to restore its fertility through the natural nutrient exchange cycle. Thus, there is rotation of fields instead of crops (Hunter 1969). The length of the fallow period varies from place to place depending on prevailing local ecological and sociocultural factors. Essentially, there should be plenty of cultivable land in relation to the population of the land-owning group so that pieces of land could be allowed sufficient time to regain their fertility through the natural system. However, increasing pressure on land in most districts has led to shortening of fallow periods from between 6 and 10 years to between 2 and 3 years (Hunter 1969 ). Consequently, most lands are not able to regain their fertility, leading to poor crop yields.
Why is tillage important?
In recent decades, the advent of chemical herbicides has reduced the importance of tillage as the primary method for the eradication of weeds, though the high cost of such chemical treatments and their ancillary environmental effects limit their application, especially in developing countries. At the same time, the formerly prevalent practice of inverting the topsoil in order to bury manures and plant residues has become a less important function of tillage in modern field management. Plant residues can, and in many cases should, be left over the surface as a stubble mulch to protect against evaporation and erosion.
What happens after a cropping phase?
After a cropping phase, the land is abandoned to a fallow phase. Later, the cycle is repeated. Only those systems that alternate between crop and fallow phases are included in this definition. Multistory tree gardens, home gardens, and cocoa plantations, where crops are permanently cultivated, are excluded.
What is slash and burn agriculture?
Slash-and-burn agriculture is a generic term for agricultural systems in which the fallow vegetation is manually slashed, left to dry, and cleared from the field by burning before crop cultivation. “Swidden” is an English dialect word for a burned clearing; thus, swidden agriculture is a synonym for slash-and-burn agriculture. After a cropping phase, the land is abandoned to a fallow phase. Later, the cycle is repeated. Only those systems that alternate between crop and fallow phases are included in this definition. Multistory tree gardens, home gardens, and cocoa plantations, where crops are permanently cultivated, are excluded. With the exception of labor, slash-and-burn farmers use few or no external inputs. Implements such as machetes and hoes are most commonly used. Systems where machinery is used for clearance and irrigated systems are excluded from this definition. Not considered in this context are the systems such as the ankara of the Western Highlands in Cameroon, the nkule of the Tanzanian grasslands, and the gy of Ethiopia, in which vegetation is slashed, gathered, covered with soil, and then burned inside the soil mounds.
What is the problem of soil degradation?
The severe problem of soil degradation is caused by indiscriminate and intensive land use based on monoculture regardless of soil capability, introduction of pastures with high stocking rate and uncontrolled grazing, or intensive cropping without input of chemical fertilizers or compost at the required rates. The problem of soil degradation is exacerbated by harsh climate characterized by intense rains of high erosivity and structurally weak soils.
What is shifting cultivation?
In summary, 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.
What factors are necessary for shifting cultivation?
Factors Necessitating Shifting Cultivation. 1. Declining of soil fertility and increasing population. 2. Unusually high incidence of diseases and pests. 3. Social or religious customs may dictate the abandonment of site before its fertility level has become marginal.
Why are farms in one location only for a short time?
2. Because the farms stays in one location only for a short while, there is no incentives to invest in permanent structures such as store sheds, irrigation and even certain pest control soil erosion or soil conservation measures that may have a long-term benefits. 3.
What dictates abandonment of a site before its fertility level has become marginal?
3. Social or religious customs may dictate the abandonment of site before its fertility level has become marginal.
What happens to the land after a few years of bush fallows?
Eventually, after several years of bush fallows, the farmers returns to the original location. The practice of moving the home along with ...
How long do you grow crops in a fallow field?
Clears the vegetation by burning. Crop are then grown on the field for one, two or three years starting with crops with high nutrients requirement and ending with crops that has low nutrients requirement.
When is the period of cultivation terminated?
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.
What is shifting cultivation?
Shifting cultivation is a method of agriculture where an area of land is cleared off its vegetation and cultivated for a period of time and then abandoned for its fertility to be naturally restored. Important to note is that this method is very different from crop rotation. This article will help you understand what are the advantages and disadvantages of shifting cultivation.
Why is shift farming uneconomical?
Shift farming is uneconomical. It easily leads to loss of biodiversity. Water pollution in coastal areas easily occur because of raw sewage and oil residue. Shifting mode of farming restricts the intensity of land use.
How does shifting farming reduce bone disease?
Soil bone diseases is also reduced significantly through shifting mode of farming. Shifting cultivation is a one lands clearing mode of farming or a slash and burn strategy. It leaves only stump and large trees in the farming area after the standing vegetation has been cut down and burned. The ashes enrich soil.
Why is farming considered an adaptation to tropical soil conditions?
This is because it would be highly detrimental to the fertility of the land.
What is shift farming?
In shift farming, it is easy to grow crops after the process of slash and burn. This is why shifting agriculture is also popularly known as slash-and-burn farming. It is an environmentally friendly mode of farming as it is organic. Shift cultivation is a mode or form of weed control. It also plays a crucial role in pest control.
How does shift farming save resources?
Shift farming saves a wide range of resources and provides nutrients because a small area is usually cleared and the burned vegetation offers many nutrients
Why does deforestation lead to deforestation?
It can easily lead to deforestation because when soil fertility is exhausted, farmers move on and clear another small area of the forest
What is shifting cultivation?
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 ...
How many people are in the world from shifting cultivation?
An estimated population exceeding 250 million people derive subsistence from the practice of shifting cultivation, and ecological consequences are often deleterious.
What happens when land becomes inadequate for crop production?
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.
Is palm oil associated with deforestation?
How Environmental Protection and Poverty Reduction Can Be Reconciled. May 19, 2020 — Palm oil is often associated with tropical deforestation above all else. However, this is only one side of the story, as agricultural scientists show in a new study.
