What is slash and burn farming? | Rainforest Saver. Slash and burn farming is a form of shifting agriculture where the natural vegetation is cut down and burned as a method of clearing the land for cultivation, and then, when the plot becomes infertile, the farmer moves to a new fresh plot and does the same again. This process is repeated over and over. Slashed and burned slope. Photo by Antony Melville 2007. Maybe about 250 million (they are not easy to count) are forced to eke out a living like that on some of the world's poorest soils. By slashing and then burning tropical forest, these landless farmers can usually sustain themselves for only 2 consecutive years on the same patch of soil.
The soil then loses its fertility and they are faced with either a daily walk of several miles to a new patch or, increasingly as the number of landless farmers grows, they may have to with uproot their families to move. Hillsides denuded by continuous slash and burn. Slash and burn. Slash and Burn Agriculture - An Overview of Slash and Burn. Slash and burn agriculture is the process of cutting down the vegetation in a particular plot of land, setting fire to the remaining foliage, and using the ashes to provide nutrients to the soil for use of planting food crops. The cleared area following slash and burn, also known as swidden, is used for a relatively short period of time, and then left alone for a longer period of time so that vegetation can grow again.
For this reason, this type of agriculture is also known as shifting cultivation. Steps to Slash and Burn Generally, the following steps are taken in slash and burn agriculture: 1. Prepare the field by cutting down vegetation; plants that provide food or timber may be left standing.2. The downed vegetation is allowed to dry until just before the rainiest part of the year to ensure an effective burn.3. Cultivation (the preparation of land for planting crops) on the plot is done for a few years, until the fertility of the formerly burned land is reduced.
Slash and burn. Slash and burn (a specific practice that may be part of shifting cultivation or swidden-fallow agriculture) is an agricultural procedure widely used in forested areas. Although it was practised historically in temperate regions, where it was termed assarting, it is most widely associated with tropical agriculture today. Slash and burn is a specific functional element of certain farming practices, often shifting cultivation systems. In some cases such as parts of Madagascar, slash and burn may have no cyclical aspects (e.g some slash and burn activities can render soils incapable of further yields for generations), or may be practiced on its own as a single cycle farming activity with no follow on cropping cycle. Shifting cultivation normally implies the existence of a cropping cycle component, whereas slash-and-burn actions may or may not be followed by cropping. Slash-and-burn agriculture (agriculture)