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Subject listing for: Shifting Cultivation |
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The forests of the Yucatan peninsula have been chronically, if infrequently, disturbed by fire and hurricanes-similar in many ways to current widespread disturbance associated with shifting cultivation. In addition, 2000 yrs of Mayan domination of the landscape may have preselected a group of species which respond well to relatively large-scale, intense disturbances such as shifting cultivation.
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The type of agriculture most common in forested areas is shifting swidden cultivation, or slash and burn horticulture. The fundamental aspect of shifting cultivation is the absolute necessity of a fallow period : regeneration of the forest canopy is an integral part of such an agricultural system.
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Many Hani farmers are still living under absolute poverty conditions, primarily due to too many people and too little arable land in mountainous areas of southern Yunnan Province. Hani communities in Xishuangbanna Prefecture, however, have innovated a range of practices for land-use intensification in swidden agroecosystems including inter-cropping, crop rotation, and fallow management by planting tea, rattan and other perennials for soil fertility replenishment and income generation.
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This 1998 report from GTZ discusses a technology adoption study in a participatory development project in Yucatan, Mexico. The project introduced a conservation tillage system using legumes to decrease the length of fallows and reliance on slash-and-burn systems.
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This is an article appearing in the on-line New Agriculturist that states shifting cultivation is estimated to support currently between 300-500 million people worldwide. Shifting cultivators include indigenous groups, who have been practising swidden cultivation for centuries as well as migrant farmers who reclaim forest areas but, unlike indigenous communities, have no intimate knowledge of their new environment nor traditional resource management system.
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Despite good global agricultural performance with respect to yield in the last two decades, the numbers of people undernourished only fell by 80 million, from 920 million to 840 million between the late 1960s and the early 1990s. In the last 30 years enough food was produced to feed everyone had it been more evenly distributed. Most analysts agree that poverty is the key reason why 840 million people do not have enough to eat and that at present, hunger is not a matter of agricultural limits but a problem of masses of people not having access to food or the means to produce it.
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This 1997 edition of ILEIA Magazine covers rebuilding soil fertility in low external input sustainable agricultural systems. It includes articles on green manure, swidden agriculture, integrated nutrient management, and soil and water conservation.
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Shifting cultivation among Chinantec communities in the south of Mexico is an interactive and iterative process. When trying to redesign these systems in a more sustainable way, the many differences among the systems should be recognised. That is the main conclusion of PhD researcher Hans van der Wal.
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At the request of the Sarawak State Planning Unit, this report considers the socio-economic aspects of resettlement of the Kayan and Lahanan of the upper Balui and makes preliminary recommendations about the planning of resettlement. It also presents suggestions for further studies which would help in the planning process. A report by Dr. Tan Chee-Beng covers the other communities of the upper Balui.
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This page provides an overview of traditional farming, and cites literature and links for further information. The main types of traditional systems are discussed along with their common features. Traditional systems are examined for their role in the preservation of biological diversity and the future of traditional agriculture is explored. There is also a case study of the farming methods employed in LADAKH, India.
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