Description:
Abstract:
"Shifting cultivation continues as the economic mainstay of upland communities in
many countries in Southeast Asia. However, the conditions that historically underpinned the
sustainability of rotations with long fallows have largely vanished. The imperative to evolve
more permanent forms of land use has been exacerbated by rapid population growth, gazette-
ment of remnant wildlands into protected areas, and state policies to sedentarize agriculture
and discourage the use of fallows and fire. There are many compelling examples where shifting
cultivators have successfully managed local resources to solve local problems. Technical
approaches to stabilizing and improving productivity of shifting cultivation systems have not
been notably successful. Farmer rejection of researcher-driven solutions has led to greater recog-
nition of farmer constraints. This experience underlined the need for participatory, on-farm
research approaches to identify solutions. The challenge is to document and evaluate indige-
nous strategies for intensification of shifting cultivation through a process of research and devel-
opment. This process involves identification of promising indigenous practices, characterization
of the practices, validation of the utility of the practice for other communities, extrapolation to
other locations, verification with key farmers, and wide-scale extension.".....Key words:
farming systems, indigenous knowledge, intensification, slash-and-burn, swidden,
uplands.
Source/publisher:
Agroforestry Systems 47 : 37?48, 1999
Date of Publication:
1999-00-00
Date of entry:
2016-07-10
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Language:
English
Local URL:
Format:
pdf
Size:
136 KB