FAO STAFF
An appeal by FAO to governments, research centers, associations and private persons who are in a position to help
Shifting cultivation, in the humid tropical countries, is the greatest obstacle not only to the immediate increase of agricultural production, but also to the conservation of the production potential for the future, in the form of soils and forests. This has been borne out in several FAO conferences and in correspondence with many Member Governments.
Over the past few years, FAO has undertaken a limited number of case studies, stressing the forestry aspects of the problem. The intention is to follow up the publication of these case studies with analyses of the effects of shifting cultivation on soils and forests, as well as with proposals for improving the situation. This entails the study of all facets of the problem. FAO has, therefore, the intention of mobilizing the contributions of as many scientists as possible to help solve this problem in all interested countries.
In order to reach a better understanding of the problem, an attempt is made in this article to define shifting cultivation, to evaluate its actual dimensions, to postulate its probable causes, to draw the approximate geographical and cultural boundaries of its area and, finally, to project the main lines of action to overcome its disadvantages.
This first step should stimulate interest among those experts who, in one way or another, are in touch with this vast problem. It is with the help of their response to the request made by FAO that real and more systematic coordination will become possible. This will be achieved through questionnaires, publications, meetings, seminars and conferences until ideas have crystallized sufficiently for concrete lines of action to be recommended to the various governments interested in the problem.
Shifting cultivation is the custom of cultivating clearings scattered in the reservoir of natural vegetation (forest or grass-woodland) and of abandoning them as soon as the soil is exhausted; and this includes the custom of shifting the homesteads in order to follow the cultivator's search for new fertile land.
These nomadic habits have the following grave consequences:
1. The fallow, which restores soil fertility, is identical with natural vegetation which remains outside human control, outside the possibility of improvement.2. Therefore, soil and forest resources are being wasted by bush fires, erosion and other factors.
3. Man is never induced to intensify his agriculture, nor to proceed with long-term improvements of his land.
4. Having to move away periodically, he does not accumulate any permanent material wealth.
5. Beyond a certain critical limit, the density of population cannot increase as, at the approach to this limit, all the soil becomes degraded and famines redisperse the population.
6. No concentrations or agglomerations of the population can, therefore, take place and no urbanization is possible, which means that the cultivators have to remain economically at a subsistence level, without professional differentiation, without exchange or specialization, i.e., without any possibility of progress.
7. Where cash crops have been introduced in an attempt to raise the standard of living of the cultivators, without altering the methods of cultivation, experience has shown that the destructive effects of shifting cultivation have become even greater.
Shifting cultivation is not only a backward type of agricultural practice. It is also a backward stage of culture in general. In all respects it corresponds to the Neolithic period through which humanity passed between the years 13,000 and 3,000 B.C., considering that the substitution of iron tools for polished stone has made no substantial difference in the way of life.
It is not easy to establish the geographical boundaries of the total area under shifting cultivation because of the transitory types of culture which surround it, but very roughly one could estimate it at 14 million square miles (36 million km.) inhabited by some 200 million people. The average density of only 14 men per square mile (6 per sq. km.) is so low that a world in expansion cannot tolerate this relative vacuum. This does not mean that the vacuum should be filled in by migrations, but every country must be made capable of contributing its share of agricultural produce for the benefit of all.
Moreover, the industrialization of underdeveloped countries, if proceeding ahead of the stabilization and improvement of rural life, increases "social distances" between lower and upper classes of society, and this tends to throw it back to obsolete authoritarian forms of social structure.
The area of shifting cultivation corresponds to the rainy tropics, with the exception of all those parts of it where a rich and stable soil permits continuous cultivation, as for example on recent alluvia, on volcanic soils and in high altitudes. It seems to be established that the factor which keeps people at the level of shifting cultivation is in the first place the rapidity with which tropical soils lose their fertility (i.e., their lack of retaining capacity of plant nutrients) and undergo undesirable changes in physical conditions. These difficulties can be split into several factors-low adsorption capacity for exchangeable bases of the soils' clay fractions, the tendency of these clays to immobilize phosphates, the heavy percolation rate of tropical rains through generally very porous soils and the resulting leaching of plant nutrients, the rapid destruction of organic matter by bacterial action under conditions of high temperatures, and so on.
Where man has to deal with a rapid destruction of soil fertility under conditions of denudation for the purpose of cultivating annual crops, and where he possesses no other means of restoring soil fertility than natural green fallow, he lives in too narrow a dependency on the natural order, without being able to take it under his social and technical control.
The most primitive type of shifting cultivation can be found presumably in equatorial forest areas, where the cultivation of clearings is, economically speaking, no more than a small additional resource to the still more primitive stage of hunting and gathering. On the fringes of the humid tropical belt, in the savanna, more elaborate systems of agriculture are the custom.
Where the homesteads are small, being restricted to family groups, the periodicity of moving is rapid. Where on the other hand village units are big, their nomadic character may be less obviously apparent. In such cases, soil destruction does not immediately lead to migration but to fields being further and further removed from the villages, until the stage is reached when a community is faced with economic catastrophe and eventually has to move and settle elsewhere. Areas of such occurrence should also be considered as forming part of the shifting cultivation zone.
On the perimeter of the humid tropics, where dry seasons are long, agriculture is in most cases practiced alongside with cattle breeding. Conventionally one could consider that pastoral nomadism starts where the main reason for moving the homestead is a search for seasonal pastures, whereas the area of shifting cultivation extends to where migrations are due to an agricultural incentive.
In the neighborhood of areas where soils are enriched by river deposits, there are generally accumulations of people who follow a sedentary way of life. If such areas are sufficiently big to be economically independent, they are obviously outside shifting cultivation. Where, however, a certain amount of rice is grown in marshes by people who otherwise practice shifting dry farming, they; also, could be included in the area. The same applies to pockets of completely sedentary rice-growing communities wherever these are scattered amongst shifting cultivators.
As the altitude increases the soils gradually lose their defect of a transient fertility, and it is not exceptional to see sedentary populations practicing continuous cultivation on tropical plateaus, although culturally they are almost at the same level as shifting cultivators. In a study of shifting cultivation, these areas are of interest for the purpose of establishing comparisons.
Finally, wherever countries which ecologically belong to the area of shifting cultivation have long been in contact with old civilizations, several transitional cultural levels might have developed which are eminently important in the study of means of overcoming shifting cultivation.
At a first glance, three points of attack seem feasible. The first would deal with the main ecological limiting factor, namely the rapid loss of soil fertility. The second would consist in the adaptation of all inventions of modern life which could help the shifting cultivators to emerge from their blind alley, and this even where the first line of action should yield but meager results. The third line of attack would involve methods of guiding the major social change involved in the transition from a nomadic way of life to a sedentary one and to civilization. This major social change will be necessary in any case, whether grafted on improved soil conditions or on the introduction of various agricultural and technological improvements, or both.
FAO would be particularly grateful for all suggestions for research in soil science directed towards the solution of the problem as stated above. In the first place, the overall productivity of tropical soils could be increased by appropriate methods of soil management and especially by intensifying and improving the regenerative effect of the fallows. This is achieved first by protecting the fallow, but could be further enhanced by replacing the natural bush and grass fallows by planted scrub and grass fallows and finally by fertilizing these. Other actions such as finding means of making the effect of fertilizers last longer, and even altering the structure of the soil, may be suggested. At this stage, If is not wise to limit the choice of suggestions and the lines approach as much may still have escaped attention. Accounts of all the experience so far acquired in experimental work, especially along the lines-of the corridor system as practiced in the Belgian Congo, would be very gladly received.
There is a particular need for a critical evaluation of the benefits that accrue to the tropical soils from natural fallows. Such an evaluation may open the door to revolutionary improvements in the management of these soils and thus provide the foundation for a radical improvement in the lives of people in the areas of shifting cultivation.
In many countries, attempts have been made to fix shifting population by resettlement. This has yielded positive results only where the establishment of appropriate crop rotations has been introduced in local practice. The introduction of a crop rotation is dependent on alterations in land tenure systems and with them the social structures. As soon as this fundamental measure of introducing crop rotations was taken-in other words, as soon as a technical and legal basis was created for the exercise of a certain control over the fallow-a number of other measures became possible. In the first place, as already mentioned, an intensification of the fallow by protecting, planting and manuring it, in turn opens up possibilities for mechanizing cultivation. The establishment of permanent roads and paths has made it possible to shorten distances by mechanizing transport. This also makes it possible to introduce time-saving devices such as collectively-owned pumps and mills. Some of the production of food in a sedentary way of life has been taken over by permanent tree-plantation, which conserves the soil better than annuals, and some by the creation and stocking of fishponds. Finally, all this leads to the possibility of increasing productivity by means of exchange and specialization, including an occupational differentiation between craftsmanship, cattle breeding, agriculture and forestry.
It would be desirable to make an inventory of any application of these and other interdependent measures, and to relate their success to demographic conditions (critical minima and maxima of population densities), to nutritional and economic conditions (measurable not by money incomes but preferably in units of effort at the production end, in calories and units of protein at the consumption end), and to social and cultural conditions, i.e., to the people's contentment, to the degree of their participation in progress and their acceptance of it.
Until now, the cultural development of humanity has followed a process of trial and error, which is not only slow hut also dangerous as it leads through crises and catastrophes. Even at present the "acculturation" of backward people, despite the experience of history at our disposal, is carried out by methods not planned in advance. In order to raise 200 million people in one or two generations to a point of cultural evolution which has normally taken some 5,000 years to attain, and in order to do it smoothly, crushing neither the forces of cohesion of the society nor its adhesion to the natural environment, one may need to devise new, more appropriate methods of education and of administration.
Considering the great cultural disparity between the level of the people concerned and that of the scientists who should be entrusted with initiating the social change, it might be essential to open up and ensure new channels for the participation of the people in the direction of their own movement.
It seems also necessary to revise survey methods for the study of ecological conditions (soil, phytosociology, ecoclimate) and cultural conditions (social structures, land tenure and customary systems of agriculture) which together form the starting point to the social change. Until now, surveys give but little information on the logical connection between environment and culture.
Moreover, sufficiently definite criteria are not yet available for judging the progress of the social change, in order to adjust the reforms if need be.
It should be of the greatest importance to gather all documentation possible on recently acquired experience in appropriate methods of regional planning.
It is only by co-ordinating the work of various specialists that positive contributions will become possible The level at which this co-ordination is probably the most important, is that of the small problem areas in which contact between the tutors initiating progress and the populations which will have to profit from it is actually established.
Nevertheless, it is also important to centralize all the documentation available on the problem at an international level and to co-ordinate the theoretical work on means of overcoming shifting cultivation. That is what FAO proposes to do.
It appeals to all those who have acquired experience in the various branches connected with the problem to help by sending in suggestions and criticism and by indicating bibliographical sources at their disposal. The next step will be to issue systematic questionnaires, each adapted to the disciplines involved.
From universities, FAO would like to receive suggestions concerning the best methods of training teams of specialists and inter-disciplinary co-ordinators who will be required for the campaign to overcome shifting cultivation.
NOTE: All those wishing to keep in touch with FAO on the subject of shifting cultivation are asked to communicate with the Director, Agriculture Division, or the Director, Forestry Division, at FAO Headquarters, Rome.
