which type of farming is 'slash and burn'? why is land abandoned after a few years?
Answers
In many tropical regions, slash-and-burn agriculture is considered as a driver of deforestation; the forest is converted into agricultural land by cutting and burning the trees. However, the fields are abandoned after few years because of yield decrease and weed invasion.
Answer:
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 plat and does the same again.
With high erosion rates under hot, dry climatic conditions, the soils can not economically support rainfed crops, and this leads to land abandonment and desertification. As the soil is eroded, land use is usually shifted from agriculture to pasture due to low productivity of the various agricultural crops.