Basic Features and Characteristics of Shifting Cultivation

December 15, 2022May 27, 2023 Agric4Profits

Shifting Cultivation is a system of farming that has to do with the farmer(s) or cultivator(s) cultivating a piece of land for a short period of time, say 1 – 3 years and then leaving or abandoning the land at the point of experiencing diminishing returns in farm productivity due to nutrient deplenishment and going to another piece of land to continue his/her farming with an intention of either returning or not returning to the previously cultivated land after a long period of time.

The period for which the land is not cultivated is called fallow period. It is within this time that bush will grow back, forest will set or grow again and the leaves that will be falling will be decomposing and forming organic manure on the soil. Through the process, lost nutrients will be restored back to the soil.

Basic Features / Characteristics of Shifting Cultivation

Just as Shifting Cultivation is an elusive term to define due to the way it is perceived and used by different people in different contexts, so are the characteristics / features viewed and presented by different people and authorities.

Going by this affirmation, so many and different characteristics have been advanced by different researchers and authorities. A Report of Main Features of Shifting Cultivation enumerated some of the characteristics / features to include; “The essential characteristics of shifting cultivation are that;

An area of forest is cleared, usually rather incompletely: The land is usually very large and it is cleared with a cutlass or slasher. The grasses and shrubs are cut down while the tree-like plants are either left as it were or trimmed and allowed to regenerate to produce either wood or other resources as the case may be. `

The debris is burnt: The rubbish that are gathered are burnt and from this, ash is produced which helps or joins in improving the fertility of the soil.

The land is cultivated for a few years – usually less than five – then allowed to revert to forest or other secondary vegetation before being cleared and used again”.

Researchers of shifting cultivation have identified the criteria considered crucial for distinguishing shifting cultivation from other land use practices. Some of the more tangible factors otherwise regarded as the characteristics of shifting cultivation are described below.

Cultivation of the crops planted is interrupted by a long period of natural fallow. In this case, it is sufficient to say that cultivation of the crops is neither permanent nor continuous.

The cultivation period is usually at variance with the duration of the fallow period, though, the fallow period is relatively longer (usually more than five years).

The fallow period involves the growing of a wide variety of vegetation, but it would typically be some type of forest.

The fallow period may or may not be sufficient to restore soil fertility since the minimum period required to restore fertility would vary from place to place.

The population density of the country or a particular place is quite large and higher than the available land areas that would permit the practice of shifting cultivation. Since it involves leaving the farmers farm to another place while allowing the previously cultivated land to grow fallow

Due to increasing distance to reach cultivated plots during the fallow periods of the nearest fields, housing may be semi-permanent, or farmers may have permanent homes in villages and temporary shelter near their fields

A small hut and a temporary storehouse may be maintained near the cultivating fields.

The fallow period is interrupted by only one crop. The fallow period normally varies from 5 to 12 years depending upon altitude. The higher the altitude, the longer the fallow.

The intensity of shifting cultivation rises with population density.

Key Features / characteristics of Shifting Cultivation

Basic Features and Characteristics of Shifting Cultivation

Rotation of fields: Shifting Cultivation as it were involves the shifting or rotation of the farmer from his/her cultivated farm/field to another fresh and uncultivated land, and may or may not return back to the previously cultivated after the fallow period.

Use of fire for clearing the land: The conventional or most common practice in clearing a new land for planting is the use of fire to burn the vegetation and get ready for the farming business. Fire is applied in the field either before or after clearing the field.

Keeping or allowing the land fallow for regeneration for a number of years: Shifting cultivation is all about leaving a particular farm after farming it for a period of time and allowing it go fallow and during the period, regeneration of the trees, shrubs and grasses is known to take place.

Use of human labour as main input: Going by the nature of shifting cultivation, trees and some particular plants are left, and for this reason and possibly in addition to the terrain as well as the inaccessibility to cultivated farms, only human labour is likely to be applied in doing work in the farm. Machines cannot access, and the services cannot be afforded by the farmer.

Non-employment of draught animals: In most cases the human labour is the only source of labour. The use of animals to do work in the farm or use of animal-drawn implement is not applicable in where shifting cultivation is concerned.

Type of implement used: The type of implement used in shifting cultivation is simple farm tools or crude implements. The system does not allow the use of farm machines and implements. This may by attributed to the terrain, and nature of vegetation.

The type of crops grown: The type of crops grown under the shifting cultivation farming is mixed cropping system. This involves the planting of different types of crops on the same piece of land.

Main features / Characteristics of Shifting Cultivation

Another authority pointed out some of the characteristics of shifting cultivation could be describe/explained;

Clearings are made in the rainforest by clearing the grasses and shrubs and cutting down and firing trees (slash and Burn)

Largest trees often left because they are difficult to remove and can provide a source of food in the form of fruit and also provide shade for the farmers.

Ash is scattered after trees have been burned to fertilize the ground.

Human farm power is majorly used as source of farm labour. It is only in few cases that machines such as chain saws are used especially in the falling down of trees

Crude farm tools are majorly used. These include the use of cutlass, hoe and the use of digging sticks in the planting of crops.

There is the planting of Crops in between tree trunks. The crops produce leaves which later drop, decompose and add to the nutrient level of the soil

Shifting cultivation is only possible where there is a low population density in relation to the available land. In a nutshell. Shifting cultivation is sustainable when the population is low.

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