Shifting Cultivation
The Kantu Tribe
WHAT IS SHIFTING CULTIVATION?
Shifting cultivation is a farming method. A common form of this method is known as slash-and-burn farming. The way of burning is in order of:
1. Burning of trees for plots of land to plant and grow crops or to build settlements on.
2. Ash left on the land is used as a fertilliser for the crops.
3. Land is used for farming up to 3-4 years until it becomes infertile. (UNLESS CROP ROTATION IS DONE)
4. The shifting cultivators therefore move to another part of land for farming and start all over again.
An example of a shifting cultivator is the Kantu Tribe.
Shifting cultivators uses fire to clear forests as it is quick, cheap and not labour intensive this enables farmers to clear large plots of land & the ash left from the fire can be used as fertilizer for the crops grown.
Pros of shifting cultivation:
i. Its reduces the amount of pest in the plots of land and is often a form of pest-control.
ii. It also clears the weeds, therefore crops grow quickly.
Cons of shifting cultivation:
· When it burns down trees, soot is released into the air and it causes air pollution in which can lead to further problems like acid rain and global warming.
It causes deforestation by the cutting down of trees. The trees can no longer hold down the soil so everything flows into the river, therefore, deforestation and soil erosion is caused.
- Shifting Cultivation is often practiced by primitive tribes in the forested highlands of the Amazon Basin, Congo Basin, etc.
THE ADVANTAGES
MORE INFORMATION
This system often involves clearing of a piece of land followed by several years of wood harvesting or farming until the soil becomes infertile.
Once the land becomes infertile for crop production, it is left to be reclaimed by natural vegetation, or sometimes converted to a different long term cyclical farming practice (EXAMPLE CROP ROTATION).
An estimated population exceeding 250 million people derive subsistence from the practice of shifting cultivation, and ecological consequences are often deleterious..
METHODS
- Slash and burn
**EXTRA** - Taken From http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/jan102009/10.pdf
..It is because shifting cultivation has its own merits in the sense that fallowing of land helps in conservation of soil moisture, enrichmentof soil texture and soil structure, addition of potassium to the soil during the process of burning, increase in soil pH, increase in soil microbial biomass, restriction in outgrowth of particular pests and pathogens for particular crops. Least disturbance of top soil, development of a good crop canopy due to mixed cropping, no capital investment except labour and seeds which usually come from the household and above all, the outcome of organically economic produce – free from hazards of synthetic fertilizers/ pesticides, herbicides..
- Controlled burn
Controlled burning stimulates the germination of some desirable forest trees, thus renewing the forest.
Some seeds, such as sequoia, remain dormant until fire breaks down the seed coating.
