Answer: Shifting agriculture is a primitive type of subsistence farming in which a patch of forest is cleared, cultivated for a few years and then abandoned for a new patch.
- Method: trees are cut and burnt (slash and burn); the ash adds fertility to the soil. Crops are grown for 2–3 years until the soil loses fertility, then the farmers move to a new area.
- Areas: tropical forest regions – Amazon basin, Central Africa, South-East Asia and north-east India.
- Local names: Jhum (north-east India), Milpa (Mexico and Central America), Ladang (Malaysia, Indonesia), Roca (Brazil).
- Features: small plots, simple tools like hoes and digging sticks, family labour, no use of fertilisers or machines; crops like maize, millets, tapioca, yams and vegetables.
- Problems: low productivity, deforestation, soil erosion and loss of biodiversity. With rising population, the fallow period becomes shorter and the land degrades.
