Naag

restores nutrients lost during cultivation and harvest (Gurung, 1999). Shifting


cultivation indicates a farming system that rotates its fields, letting most areas that


form part of the system lie idle for regeneration of nutrients (Anderson, Sophorn and


Thornberry, 2007).


A set of vernacular terms, such as lose, bhasme, dash, Khoriya kheti are also used to


refer the shifting cultivation in Nepal (Gurung, 1999). The practice of shifting


cultivation is also referred to as slash-and-burn and swidden agriculture. It is also


referred to as forest agrarian system; it has been widely practiced by hill communities


in Asia, Africa, and Latin America since the Neolithic period (130,000 to 3,000BC)


(Teegalapalli, Gopi and Prasanna, 2009).


“...shifting cultivation should not be understood as crop shifting, i.e. a different crop


is cultivated each year on the same plot. The [shifting cultivation] should neither be


taken as the settlement shifting as in the case of the nomads who keep on moving


from one place to another and finding new cultivation areas along with the way the


permanent settlers use different plots each year on rotational basis for crop


cultivation” (Dhakal, 2000:94).


In shifting cultivation, fields are cleared of forest or vegetation on a rotational basis


after which they are cultivated for one or two years. After the cropping phase, the land


is left fallow for up to twelve years and during the period the forest regenerates. Land


clearing is usually done through slashing and burning. However, this rotational agro


forestry practice should not be confused with the clearing of forest for permanent


cultivation (Aryal and Kerchoff, 2008). The slash and burn activities are not mere


clearing of the land but rather the transfer of the tropical forest to the


botanical/agricultural complex (Geertz, 1963).


The stages and features of shifting cultivation cycle vary depending upon the local


circumstances. However, most practitioners mention that the cultivation phase has six


stages: (1) site selection and land clearing, (2) drying of the slash and burning, (3)


planting and cultivation, (4) weeding, (5) harvesting, and (6) succession (Fujisaka,


Hurtad and Uribe, 1996). According to Geertz, “the characteristics of [shifting


cultivation] and [permanent cultivation] are clear and critical: On the one hand a multi


crops, highly diverse regime, a cycling of nutrients between living forms, a closed- cover architecture, and a delicate equilibrium; on the other, an open field, mono crop,

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