Agricultural aspects of shifting cultivation

Shifting cultivation is the name we use for agricultural systems which involve an alternation between cropping for a few years on selected and cleared plots and a lengthy period when the soil is rested. Cultivation consequently shifts within an area that is otherwise covered by natural vegetation. The intensity of shifting cultivation varies widely. A relatively simple and appropriate criterion of land use intensity is the relation between the period of cultivation and the period of fallow. Joosten (1962) proposes, and we follow his example, to measure land use intensity through the value R. The letter R tells us the percentage of the land that is cultivated annually.