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. 

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:

• Millet
• Upland rice 
• Beans
• Bananas 
• Yams
• Cassava 
• Manioc 
• Tapioca
• Corn or maize
• Yams.

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.

Process Of Shifting Cultivation

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

1. Farmers must first choose a location near their villages or other towns where they intend to cultivate. 
2. The vegetation that typically covers the land must be removed before it can cultivate. 
3. Most of the tall trees, which often assist in bringing down the smaller trees, were cut down by farmers using axes and cutting tools.
4. The leftover material is then burned by the farmers in a controlled environment. 
5. Every time it rains, the rain arrives and carries the nutrients into the soil by washing the fresh ashes into the ground. 
6. The cleared space is referred to as a swidden.
7. For only three years or fewer, the cleared ground can grow crops.
8. After three years, the soil is no longer suitable for producing crops due to the faster loss of nutrients in the soil. 
9. Farmers and residents of the community search for a new location to start clearing land when the swidden is no longer beneficial. 
10. It may take up to twenty years for them to allow the former site to return to its pre-cropping state by leaving it unattended for a long period.

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.

As a result, shifting agriculture has come under a lot of remarks because it affects tropical forestlands’ overall fertility and soil fertility. However, in regions where long-term agriculture has been practised on the same soil without the use of fertilizers or modern soil conservation techniques, this way of farming is highly adapted to tropical soil conditions. This is because it would seriously harm the land’s fertility.

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.

• Providing farmers with high-quality education would help them acquire the effects of shift cultivation.
• Agroforestry allows farmers to protect the tree canopy and reduce soil erosion by simultaneously producing crops and trees. Dead organic matter is beneficial to crops as well.
• To preserve the health of the canopy, reforestation involves replacing cut trees with new ones.
• To ensure sustainability, all operations are closely monitored using cutting-edge technology as well as photography.
  

FAQs

Que 1. What do you understand by shifting cultivation?

Answer:

An agricultural practise known as shifting cultivation involves briefly cultivating a parcel of land, abandoning it, and then shifting to another plot while the post-disturbance fallow vegetation is allowed to develop naturally. The cultivation stage is often over when the soil begins to exhibit indications of weariness or, more frequently, when the field is overtaken by weeds.

Que 2. Name the crops that are grown under shifting cultivation.

Answer:

Depending on the area, different types of crops are cultivated via shifting cultivation. The principal cash crops planted on movable fields are cotton, ginger, linseed, sesame, rapeseed, and jute. Soybean, potatoes, tapioca, chili, pumpkin, cucumber, sweet potato, beans, onion, and other crops are grown.

Que 3. Write in brief about the process of shifting cultivation.

Answer:

Shifting cultivation entails clearing a plot of land by removing all the trees and plants. After burning the waste, the ash is utilized as fertilizer for the land. After then, the area is farmed for a while until the soil loses its fertility. The farmers continue the operation on another plot of land after that.

Que 4. Write the major disadvantages of shifting cultivation.

Answer:

Major 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.

Que 5. Why shifting cultivation is known as slash-and-burn cultivation?

Answer:

Because the technique of shifting cultivation entails clearing every tree and plant on a plot of land and burning them, it is often referred to as slash-and-burn agriculture. After that, the ash is utilized as a soil fertilizer. When the soil loses its fertility, this process is repeated every few years.