Shifting cultivation, commonly referred to as swidden farming, is a rotating agricultural technique in which land is cleared for cultivation (typically by fire) and then allowed to regenerate after a few years.
Due to the false assumption that swidden farming, which is sometimes derogatorily referred to as “slash-and-burn,” is the cause of deforestation, governments all over the globe have long pushed to outlaw it.
A systematic investigation of shifting agriculture is referred to as swidden, a term used by Harold C. Conklin. Two major topics emerged from a survey on swidden farming: “a manmade ecosystem” and how it links to population and settlement trends. The study of swidden farming has greatly advanced our understanding of ecology and evolution.
The derogatory phrase “slash-and-burn” is used to describe a wide range of various farming techniques. It’s also used to describe how farms and ranches are encroaching rapidly into wooded regions by first cutting down the trees, then burning the stumps, and finally planting.
This intrusive “pioneering” has nothing in common with the meticulous maintenance and rotation of plots used by generations of aboriginal peoples. However, ill-informed policymakers have grouped all of these behaviours and painted them as harmful to the environment.
Tribal peoples have evolved sophisticated agricultural methods based on clearing land for a short period and then leaving it to return to the forest for a longer length of time throughout the ecologically important forests of the Amazon, Borneo, and Central Africa. The more accurate terms for this kind of “slash-and-burn” are “swidden farming” or “shifting cultivation.”
When compared to intensive contemporary agriculture, swidden agriculture is sometimes seen as being antiquated. The input of fertilizer is necessary in modern agriculture to extract soil nutrients, while herbicides are used to stop the spread of weeds. In contrast, swidden farming allows for lengthy fallow periods in between episodes of cultivation, allowing woody vegetation to outcompete herbaceous plants, which reduces the weed population by the time cultivation is resumed.
Additionally, swidden farming not only permits the buildup of organic soil matter due to the decay of weeds, leaves, roots, branches, and other plant parts but also, through burning, both contributes to soil fertility by reducing the buildup of organic matter and deactivating the soil. Therefore, swidden agriculture is a cyclical, sustainable agricultural technique that relies on natural processes; it is by no means extinct.
Some claimed that altering agricultural techniques contributed to some of the enormous variety of these woods rather than endangering it. These agricultural practices, which have been refined over many generations to be suitable for both the soil and the people, make careful use of a variety of tools, including fire.
Swedged was viewed as a destructive practice that destroyed woods that should have been exploited for logging or conservation in the middle to late 20th century. The negative effects of mining, the construction of dams, plantations, and the gluttonous need for lumber were downplayed, while swidden was portrayed as the number one adversary of conservation.
Several countries outlawed or severely limited the activity while permitting the clearing of vast tracts of forest land for logging, plantations, and biofuel production.
These farming practices “maintain very high levels of biodiversity while providing a livelihood for populations in tropical forest areas worldwide,” according to recent scientific findings.
Scientists have shown that swidden plots in the Peruvian Amazon maintain an average of 37 tree species, while data from the Karen swidden farmers in northern Thailand reveal that 370 species are also supported there. This suggests that indigenous peoples are the best environmental stewards in the world.
The biggest highland minority tribe in Thailand, the Karen, has historically practised a traditional short cultivation-long fallow swidden system. The community has a shaky hold on its land resources, and it mainly relies on barter labour to develop family farms and volunteer labour for the collective chores required to safeguard village lands from dangers like fire.
By permitting regrowth from stumps and coppiced trees in cultivated fields and by regulating fire in fallow swiddens, farmers in the swidden system foster forest regeneration.
In addition to providing building materials and domestic fuel, trees also transport nutrients in the form of ash to a broad range of non-tree crops, including rice. Swiddens are grown with the least amount of soil disturbance possible.
The system supported a subsistence economy for hundreds of years without significant environmental degradation due to low population density. The system has become unstable recently. The majority of development initiatives have not been incorporated into the current land-use frameworks.
The productivity of the swidden has not often been increased by using agroforestry techniques. While the number of Karens has increased due to a drop in mortality and migration into the hills, there is less land accessible to them due to extensive reforestation operations in swidden land regions.
The availability of labour available for reciprocal trade has decreased as a result of the commercialization of the subsistence economy. The security of tenure of swiddens and other communally owned land has decreased as a result of the rise in demand for forest resources.
The swidden system has tended to worsen, with more frequent cropping and shorter fallow periods as well as less effective fire control. Karens are increasingly focusing more emphasis on irrigated areas.
This is because, according to UN standards, it is classified as a developing country and lacks any significant industries outside of agriculture and forestry. It is also a landlocked nation in Southeast Asia.
Mountains with an elevation between 500 and 2,000 meters cover more than 80% of Laos’s terrain. Ethnic communities speaking Mon-Khmer and Sino-Tibetan participate in subsistence cultivation in these mountainous regions. This is one of the few places in the world where swidden agriculture is being carried out traditionally.
For many years, our ancestors have engaged in sustainable swidden farming, sustaining a cycle of crop and fallow that was and is suitable for the soil. However, the amount of land utilized for swidden agriculture has drastically decreased, and the technique may soon become extinct due to greater restrictions faced by the industry globally.
Upland rice was traditionally grown for one year in northern Laos’ traditional swidden farming before the area was left fallow for several years to allow the flora to repopulate. However, the government started putting land and forest rules into place in the 1990s to safeguard biodiversity and forest resources.
Since then, there have been an increasing number of limitations placed on traditional land use practices, which were previously left up to the communities’ discretion. The government has also implemented measures to move highland settlements closer to roadways.
Increased population pressure has been the outcome, especially in the communities along these highways, and this has made it more difficult to perform traditional swidden agriculture.
The only emphasis of the claim that swidden farming leads to environmental degradation is the felling and burning of trees for reclaiming lands. The benefit of the 10 or more years of swidden fallow, which facilitates forest regrowth, is ignored in this. Fallow land and agricultural land are seen as entirely different things. Many academics, decision-makers, and environmentalists only consider the temporary farmland’s use and compare its production to that of a rice paddy field of equal size.
We need to do rid of several “classifications” to properly comprehend swidden farming. The best way to describe swidden farming is through “continuity,” not “classification.” The requirement that a swidden field and fallow land be perceived as one place.
Significant Aspects of Swidden Farming
- Swidden Farming entails the rotation of fields used for growing crops; the land is first temporarily farmed before being left fallow for two to three years so that it can once more become fruitful for the following cultivation.
- Slash-and-burn cultivation, also referred to as swidden agriculture entails using fire to clear the land.
- With this technique, the ground is left fallow for two or three years in order to regenerate.
- This does not include using draft animals for work.
- Swidden Farming uses just extremely basic and simple implements like scrapers and dibble sticks; no sophisticated machinery is used.
- Mixed crops are cultivated in rotating shifts of swidden farming.
Climatic conditions required for sustainable Swidden Farming
In India, swidden farming is frequently practised in humid, low-latitude climate zones with warm temperatures and copious rainfall. 250 million people worldwide engage in swidden agriculture, primarily in the tropical rainforests of South America, Central and West Africa, and Southeast Asia.
The growers can cultivate several crops in each cycle thanks to this technique. However, the void between the two agricultural cycles has altered many regions’ land-use patterns. The process of swidden agriculture begins with the farmer selecting a location for planning.
Next, cultivators must remove any vegetation that has covered the land or fields. They must cut most of the plant with the aid of economically advantageous axes, burn the carefully gathered debris using the slash and burn technique, and then replant the cleared area.
When rains come, the ash from the burnt debris mixes with the soil, bringing vital nutrients and promoting soil fertility.
Positive Effects of Rediscovering Swidden Farming
- The land can recover its lost nutrients and renew through shifting cropping. As long as the land is not harmed, it is one of the sustainable agricultural techniques.
- The land can acquire seeds and nutrients from the nearby vegetation since it is easily recycled or regenerated.
- The land benefits from shifting cultivation since it uses fewer resources and produces more nutrients. This is because the land has been cleared and the field now has plenty of nutrients from the burned plants.
- Additionally, swidden agriculture promotes increased production and sustainability in the sector.
- Slash-and-burn farming is another name for swidden farming since it makes it simple for cultivators to grow crops.
- Since swidden agriculture is carried out organically, it is also regarded as an environmentally benign kind of farming.
- The simplest method or technique of weed management is swidden farming
- The practice of swidden farming is crucial for pest management.
- Even the reduction of soil bone disorders is a result of swidden farming.
Negative Effects of Rediscovering Swidden Farming
People frequently inquire about swidden farming and its drawbacks. The drawbacks of swidden farming are described below.
- As a result of the soil being unproductive on the current site, swidden farming might even result in deforestation as farmers search for another tiny part of the forest and clear it using slash and burn techniques.
- Swidden farming also contributes to desertification and soil erosion.
- In fact, watersheds can be destroyed by this type of cultivation.
- Swidden agriculture is likewise regarded as being uneconomical.
- It might potentially result in a decline in biodiversity.
- Because of the raw sewage and oil residue, it also raises the risk of water pollution in coastal areas.
- Restricting the intensity of land use requires changing the farming cultivation process.
As a result, swidden agriculture is also criticized on the grounds that it reduces soil fertility and forestland fertility in many tropical regions.
On the other hand, this farming technique is very well suited to tropical soil conditions where long-term agriculture has been practised on the same soil without the use of fertilizer or advanced soil conservation techniques.
This is so that the land’s fertility won’t be preserved. Because of this, it is advised to cultivate the land for a shorter time and remove the crops before the soil has completely used up all of its nutrients.
Swidden Farming is present in 0.59 per cent of India’s total land area, according to recent estimates. These regions’ ecology and environment have been badly and extensively damaged by shifting cultivation. Previously lasting between 15 and 20 years, a given land’s swidden agriculture cycle now only lasts two to three years.
As a result, there has been significant deforestation, soil and nutrient loss, and an invasion of weeds and other species. The local biodiversity has suffered serious harm. Recent statistics show that Odisha is the Indian state where swidden agriculture is practised on the most acreage.
Various names for Swidden Farming in various regions
It is referred to as Jhum or Jum in the hilly provinces of northeastern India, Podu, Dabi, Koman or Bringa in Orissa, Watra in the Western Ghats, Penda, Bewar or Dahia in the southeast of Rajasthan, and Deppa or Kumari in the Madhya Pradesh district of Bastar.
The Effects of Swidden Farming Sustainability on the Environment
- Swidden Farming results in the loss of the forest, which contains the local flora and wildlife as well as priceless trees, plants, bushes, etc.
- Positively, this lessens land use intensity and prevents degradation.
- Loss of soil fertility, deforestation, and an unchecked danger of forest fires are examples of negative effects.
- The source of food and refuge for wild animals is destroyed.
- Even the possibility of flooding in locations downstream can result from it.
- It can happen as a result of siltation in reservoirs, dams, and rivers.
- The environment is ruined and degraded, and neither can be repaired.
Conclusions to resist the consequences of swidden farming on the land.
Swidden Agriculture can be both harmful and useful to the environment and the universe at large. Reviving its practice tend to reduce degradation of soil nutrients and aid its regeneration.
- To restore the large tracts of deserted land, reforestation should be initiated.
- A close observation of the landscape is required to keep an eye on the land used for such farming.
- Promoting agroforestry, which entails farmers taking care of both large trees and crops, is crucial.
- It is almost impossible to completely control swidden agriculture in some parts of India, such as Nagaland. But we can fix the problem. Instead of being constrained, this strategy can be improved.
Swidden farming is frequently a practical method of preventing poverty under challenging circumstances, rather than being the primary source of poverty or environmental degradation.
However, composite swiddening may provide a workable alternative in areas where pure swidden systems are causing significant environmental degradation and/or failing to meet the needs of growing human populations.
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