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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