what is swidden agriculture

What is an example of slash and burn agriculture?

Swidden, also called shifting agriculture, is the intermittent clearing of forests in order to grow staple food crops. He said that moving from swiddenagriculture to other land uses, for example, monoculture plantations, mostly increases farmers’ incomes and give them more access to …

What is ‘slash and burn’ agriculture?

What Is Swidden Agriculture In India? ‘Shocking agriculture’, also called shifting cultivation, refers to a farming method in which fertile land is removed by fire to cultivate (normally by torch), and regenerated over time. What Is A Swidden? As its name implies, sucker is an agricultural plot that has been cut back or burned.

Why is agriculture important and its role in everyday life?

Swidden agriculture, then, represents a sustainable and cyclical farming method that makes use of natural processes; it is by no means outdated. Ancestral peoples have practiced swidden agriculture sustainably for countless generations, maintaining a cycle of cultivation and fallow that was and is appropriate for the land.

What is the definition of slash and burn agriculture?

Swidden agriculture synonyms, Swidden agriculture pronunciation, Swidden agriculture translation, English dictionary definition of Swidden agriculture. n a land-use system, esp in tropical Africa, in which a tract of land is cultivated until its fertility diminishes, when it is abandoned until this is…

What is the meaning of swidden agriculture?

Swidden agriculture, also known as shifting cultivation, refers to a technique of rotational farming in which land is cleared for cultivation (normally by fire) and then left to regenerate after a few years.

What is swidden farming in the Philippines?

Saguiguit Jr. said swidden agriculture had been practiced for centuries in the Philippines, with indigenous farmers roaming mountainous areas to farm, leaving their fields to lie fallow for years before returning and planting crops.

Who uses swidden agriculture?

Swidden agriculture is part of the livelihood (either fully or partly) for 14 to 34 million rural people in Southeast Asia. Fire swiddening has long been a cornerstone of agricultural practices in Indonesia. In general, swiddening is a practice of subsistence agriculture (e.g. to plant rice) to feed local communities.

Where is swidden agriculture practiced?

This is one of the rare regions of the world where traditional swidden agriculture is still being practiced. Typical mountain landscape of swidden agriculture in mountainous regions of northern Laos.

What is an example of swidden?

Subsistence : Example Question #1 One of the oldest forms of agriculture, swidden involves clearing the forestation and growth in a desired field with axes, then burning the stumps to eliminate obstructions and enhance the soil.

What is swidden agriculture quizlet?

Swidden Agriculture. -Slash and burn or shifting agriculture. -Subsistence agriculture that uses little technology. -Burn and/ or clear a plot of land for crops- shift plots over time. -Plots at different stages of production and regeneration.

When did swidden agriculture start?

221). Similarly, Myrdene Anderson has documented the introduction of swidden agricultural strategies into Norwegian Lapland from Finland at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

What is swidden fallow farming?

Description: Shifting cultivation, under its diverse forms of slash and burn systems, is a traditional method of cultivating tropical upland soils, mostly for subsistence purposes. Swidden agricultural systems occur in various forms in South America, Southeast Asia and Africa.

Is swidden agriculture slash-and-burn?

Slash and burn agriculture—also known as swidden or shifting agriculture—is a traditional method of tending domesticated crops that involves the rotation of several plots of land in a planting cycle. The farmer plants crops in a field for one or two seasons and then lets the field lie fallow for several seasons.

What is swidden AP Human Geography?

Swidden. A patch of land cleared for planting through slashing and burning.

What are the advantages of using polyculture?

The benefits of polycultureSimultaneously growing a diversity of crops fosters food security.Reduces or eliminates the need for chemical pesticides and herbicides.Increases soil fertility, moisture retention, and nutrient content.Creates a self-sustainable ecosystem.Encourages organic pest management.

Which type of natural environment is associated with shifting cultivation or swidden agriculture?

Shifting cultivation is a mode of farming long followed in the humid tropics of Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America. In the practice of “slash and burn”, farmers would cut the native vegetation and burn it, then plant crops in the exposed, ash-fertilized soil for two or three seasons in succession.

What is swidden fallow farming?

Description: Shifting cultivation, under its diverse forms of slash and burn systems, is a traditional method of cultivating tropical upland soils, mostly for subsistence purposes. Swidden agricultural systems occur in various forms in South America, Southeast Asia and Africa.

When did swidden agriculture start?

221). Similarly, Myrdene Anderson has documented the introduction of swidden agricultural strategies into Norwegian Lapland from Finland at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

What are Chinampas used for?

The chinampa is an artificial cultivation system that is built in areas where water is the main natural resource present in the environment, this aquifer surface is called wetland. They are built in order to grow plants, vegetables and vegetables for self consumption and local market.

What is wet rice farming?

noun. the cultivation of rice by planting on dry land, transferring the seedlings to a flooded field, and draining the field before harvesting.

What is swidden agriculture?

Swidden agriculture tends to be viewed as outdated when compared to intensive modern agriculture, and it is accused of being a primary cause of tropical deforestation. Modern agriculture involves the input of fertilizers to supplement soil nutrients and the use of herbicides to prevent the propagation of weeds.

What is swidden farming?

Swidden agriculture, then, represents a sustainable and cyclical farming method that makes use of natural processes; it is by no means outdated. Ancestral peoples have practiced swidden agriculture sustainably for countless generations, maintaining a cycle of cultivation and fallow that was and is appropriate for the land.

How to understand swidden agriculture?

In order to understand swidden agriculture correctly, we must do away with certain ‘classifications’. Swidden agriculture is best characterized by the idea of ‘continuity,’ not through ‘classification’. The necessity of perceiving a swidden field and fallow land as the same space at different points in time is also evident from the plants that the swidden farmers use. If we re-examine swidden agriculture from the standpoint of resource use and forest ecology and take ‘continuity’ as the key idea, swidden fields can be considered an ‘agricultural field’ for the purposes of food production in the first year after slashing and burning. However, over the long fallow period that follows, the area returns to being a biologically diverse ‘forest’ after repeated natural cycles of different types of vegetation invading and succeeding one another. Swidden fields function as both field and forest, and it is inappropriate to consider swidden agriculture to be environmentally destructive.

Why are swidden fallows important?

It is worth noting that swidden fallows serve an important role as grazing land for cattle and as a source of flora and fauna resources for everyday life .

How does swidden agriculture help soil fertility?

In addition, swidden agriculture not only allows the accumulation of organic soil matter through the decomposition of weeds, leaves, roots, branches and other plant parts, but also, through burning, both contributes to soil fertility by breaking down this accumulated organic matter and sterilizes the soil. Swidden agriculture, then, represents …

How does swidden agriculture affect the environment?

The argument that swidden agriculture causes environmental degradation focus es solely on the slashing and burning of trees for the reclamation of farmland. This ignores the value of the ten-or-more years of swidden fallow, which enables forest recovery. Farmland and fallow land are considered completely separate entities.

Is swidden farming harmful?

Swidden fields function as both field and forest, and it is inappropriate to consider swidden agriculture to be environmentally destructive.

Where did svedjebruk farming originate?

This practice originated in Russia in the region of Novgorod and was widespread in Finland and Eastern Sweden during the Medieval period. It spread to western Sweden in the 16th Century when Finnish settlers were encouraged to migrate there by King Gustav Vasa to help clear the dense forests. Later, when the Finns were persecuted by the local Swedes, svedjebruk farming was spread by refugees to Eastern Norway in the Eastern part of Solør, in the area bordering Sweden known as Finnskogen (“the Finnish woods”).

What was the use of slash and burn agriculture?

Thus, since Neolithic times, slash-and-burn agriculture has been widely used to clear land to make it suitable for crops and livestock.

How long did it take for the Svedjebruk to regrow?

It was necessary to allow the former fields to regrow with forest for 10–30 years before repeating the cycle. As a result, the dwellings were often many kilometers from the fields. Furthermore, since the process was man-power intensive, extended families tended to work together and live in compact communities.

What is slash and burn farming?

v. t. e. Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed vegetation, or “slash”, is then left to dry, usually right before the rainiest part of the year.

Why do farmers cut trees?

Cultivators cut the treetops to allow sunlight to reach the land, burning the trees and grasses for fresh soil. Although it is believed that this helps fertilize the land, it can leave it vulnerable to erosion. Holes are made for the seeds of crops such as sticky rice, maize, eggplant and cucumber are planted.

What happens to downed vegetation?

The downed vegetation, or “slash”, is then left to dry, usually right before the rainiest part of the year. Then, the biomass is burned, resulting in a nutrient-rich layer of ash which makes the soil fertile, as well as temporarily eliminating weed and pest species.

When is slash and burn used in agriculture?

In slash-and-burn agriculture, forests are typically cut months before a dry season. The “slash” is permitted to dry and then burned in the following dry season. The resulting ash fertilizes the soil and the burned field is then planted at the beginning of the next rainy season with crops such as rice, maize, cassava, or other staples.

Swidden and Conservation

Swidden in Practice

• The Wanniyala Aetto of Sri Lanka are a forest people who have traditionally practiced a form of agriculture called chena cultivation. The forest plots are cleared for one or two years and then left to rest for seven or eight. The plots look untidy, with a multitude of different plants coexisting, rather than neat beds of specific crops, but this di…

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Jummas and Jhum Cultivation

Yields from Swidden