OBJECTIVES
1. To identify and classify different types of shifting cultivation
2. To examine traditional systems of shifting cultivation
3. To compare traditional shifting cultivation with contemporary “pioneer farming” or “shifted” cultivation
4. To assess the environmental impacts of shifting cultivation Types and Regions of Traditional Agriculture
Shifting cultivation today is located within the tropics
Difference between shifting cultivation and permanent agriculture?
A fallow period ‐ when land is not being used for a period of time
A fallow period ‐
when land is not being used for a period of time
What is your image of shifting cultivation?
Slash and burn
Shifting cultivation in the tropical rainforest in Shifting
cultivation in the tropical rainforest in
Laos, South‐East Asia
Shifting Cultivation in the Caribbean?
Guyana
Arawaks and other Amerindian and other Amerindian
groups still live in rainforest
Going to church in the rainforest
i f
t
Amerindian village in rainforest now an ecotourism attraction
Belize
Mayan Farmers use slash and burn methods (milpa) in the forests of the Maya Mountains
Corn has been planted after a forest burn
Amazon rainforest under shifting cultivation
Forest is starting to be fragmented and reduced in size
Fields are at different stages of the land rotation cycle
A bush fallowing landscape in West Africa
g
p
(original forest has long gone)
Soil fertility returns to previous level when fallow period is long
But as fallow period gets shorter, soil fertility does not recover to previous level before land is cultivated again So
in long run soil
So, in long run, soil fertility declines so crop yields decline Shifting Cultivation in Guatemala, ,
Central America
Forest canopy protects against soil erosion by intercepting
rain and dissipating its impact
intercepting rain and dissipating its impact
Clearing trees and vegetation exposes top soil to torrential rainfall
Large‐scale landscapes of d f
deforestation
t ti
Caused by “shifted” cultivators in Madagascar
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Grigg, D. B. (1974) Agricultural Systems of the World,
Grigg D B (1974) Agricultural Systems of the World Cambridge: Cambridge Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, pp57‐74.
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Mannion, A.M. (1995) Agriculture and Environmental Change: Temporal and Mannion,
A.M. (1995) Agriculture and Environmental Change: Temporal and
Spatial Dimensions, Chichester, U.K.: John Wiley & Sons, pp117‐130.
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Use a search engine for information on “shifted” cultivators or pioneer g
p
farmers
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Articles
can be downloaded from websites
Articles can be downloaded from websites
◦ e.g. www.odi.org.uk David Brown & Kathrin Schreckenberg
“Shifting Cultivators as agents of deforestation: assessing the evidence”