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SHIFTING AGRICULTURE
Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2012
Shifting Agriculture is a system in which land is cleared
and then cultivated until it is exhausted, at which point new land is cleared and the
process restarted.
Shifting Agriculture is shifting cultivation or forms of
agriculture in which an area of ground is cleared of vegetation and cultivated for a small
number of years and then abandoned for a new area.
Human-environmental influences and interactions in shifting agriculture when
farmers form expectations rationally - D W Jones, R V O'Neill - Environment and
Planning A 25(1) 121 – 136
Abstract. This paper contains a study of the response of shifting agriculture to several
social and environmental changes in circumstances in which farmers form in a relatively
sophisticated manner their expectations of the future values of key economic variables.
Farmers are 'given' a model of expectations formation in which the expected future value
of variables interact in the same manner as in the current period. With this structure of
expectations, the responses of the length of fallow period (the inverse of the percentage
of available land cultivated in the initial period), the total area of land under
cultivation and lying fallow in the initial period of a rotational cycle, and the
initial-period wage rate and spatial structure of land rent to changes in several social
and environmental parameters are examined. Several salient characteristics commonly
attributed to shifting, or rotational, agriculture are replicated. Higher crop prices and
increased population shorten fallow periods. Those same changes also increase the total
area of land under shifting agriculture. Higher interest rates also shorten fallow
periods. Fallows are longer at locations farther from central markets. Less commonly
recognized is that social feedbacks operate to reduce pressure on more fragile land,
although this does not imply that, other things being equal, fragile tropical land will
not be 'overused' in an ecological sense.
Shifting agriculture and sustainable development: an interdisciplinary study from
north-eastern India. - Ramakrishnan, P. S.
School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Abstract: This book presents a wide ranging synthesis of a long-term ecological study of
shifting cultivation in upland NE India (Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh), supported by
India-MAB, the Department of Environment and Forests, the Department of Science and
Technology, the University Grants Commission and other national institutions. The work was
carried out by a team of scientists headed by the author.
The project had a wide scope and content, including such topics as nutrient cycling,
hydrology, plant succession, soil microbiology and socioeconomics. Detailed ecological
studies on the dynamics of rural ecosystems were combined with practical suggestions for
improving land use and management in the region. Studies on rain forest conservation and
management were placed within the broader human ecological context of village function and
redevelopment. The approaches and concepts set out in the book are of wider interest than
the study area involved, and will be relevant to other ecological systems and cultures of
the humid tropics, and of use to ecologists, social scientists, planners and
administrative and non-governmental agencies interested in the sustainable development of
traditional societies. After a general introduction, the book has 3 main parts. The first
section, Agroecosystem and village ecosystem function, has 5 chapters addressing: (1)
cropping yield patterns and energy budgets under shifting cultivation; (2) the ecological
and economic efficiencies of other land use systems (valley systems, home gardens, cash
crop systems, fallow and sedentary systems, and terrace systems); (3) village ecosystem
function in traditional societies; (4) weed potential and management in shifting
cultivation and other systems; and (5) soil fertility and nutrient budgets under shifting
cultivation and other systems. The second section, Secondary successional patterns and
processes, has 4 chapters covering: (1) vegetation dynamics and (2) nutrient cycling in
shifting cultivation fallows; (3) early successional weeds and their strategies; and (4)
shrub and tree growth strategies and architecture. The last section, Management
implications, has 2 chapters on: (1) shifting cultivation and rain forest ecosystem
redevelopment; and (2) conservation linked to sustainable development. A subject index is
included.
Impacts of shifting agriculture on a floodplain woodland regeneration in dryland,
Kenya
G. Oba, Noragric, N. C. Stensethb and R. B. Weladjic, Centre for International
Environment and Development Studies, The Agricultural University of Norway
Abstract: Perceptions on the role played by shifting agriculture on ecosystems integrity
at the landscape scale are divided between those proposing loss of biodiversity and
habitat fragmentation and those suggesting improvement of ecosystem diversity. The sorghum
farming cycles through woodland regeneration was closely associated with forest landscapes
that were used for livestock browsing. The study shows the positive role played by
shifting agriculture in forest regeneration, implying that farming promoted ecosystem
diversity.
Sustainability Appraisal of Shifting Cultivation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of
Bangladesh
Ole K. Borggaard, Abdul Gafur, Leif Petersen, AMBIO: A Journal of the Human
Environment 32(2): 2003
Abstract: An integrated socioeconomic and erosion study on the sustainability of
traditional shifting cultivation (Jhum) carried out in 1998 and 1999 in the Chittagong
Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh showed the system to be nonsustainable under the current
conditions with fallow periods of only 3–5 years and lack of land rights. To ensure
long-term productivity of the soils, Jhum should therefore be adjusted to a tolerable
level and farmers should be given rights and title to the land to motivate them to switch
to improved, settled farming systems.
SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SHIFTING AGRICULTURE OF THE WHITE MEO
George A. Binney; WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT INST WASHINGTON DC
Abstract: The particular communities which are discussed in this paper are located in the
Hong Dong and Chom Thong districts of Chiengmai Province. In this region, settlements of
more than 40 households are rare, and the hamlets, located on mountain ridges, average 7
to 35 households. The report deals with marriage and courtship customs; the complex social
structure of clans, households, and family units; and the interrelationships of these
groups within the community. Patrilinenally related households settle close together,
forming localized patrilineages. Descent is traced through agnates, and transmission of
property on death also is through agnatic kin. Residence after marriage is patrilocal and
it is the common practice for the newly married couple to live in the household of the
husband's father. The White Meo often establish a marriage bond with the father of a
suitable marriage partner, whereby the child, born or unborn, is promised to the son or
daughter of the other party in marriage. A girl promised under such a contract usually is
required to marry, although a boy can void the contract on payment of a small fine.
Bridewealth must be paid before a wife can be considered a member of her husband's clan.
Lengthy negotiations, handled by representatives of the wife-takers and wife-givers,
precede the marriage. Examples and case histories are cited in the report.
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