#swidden

Plenty of indigenous farmers across the world grow annuals and use slash-and-burn (swidden) techniques, but they do it sustainably, which entails using the land for a short period of time, and letting it regenerate for 5-20 years. This is called shifting cultivation!

It's not just important for sustainability, but for cultural reasons as well (such as the Jewish practice called Shmita). Just as people need rest, so does the land!

The longer a field is cropped, the greater the loss of soil organic matter, cation-exchange-capacity and in nitrogen and phosphorus, the greater the increase in acidity, the more likely soil porosity and infiltration capacity is reduced and the greater the loss of seeds of naturally occurring plant species from soil seed banks. In a stable shifting cultivation system, the fallow is long enough for the natural vegetation to recover to the state that it was in before it was cleared, and for the soil to recover to the condition it was in before cropping began. During fallow periods soil temperatures are lower, wind and water erosion is much reduced, nutrient cycling becomes closed again, nutrients are extracted from the subsoil, soil fauna decreases, acidity is reduced, soil structure, texture and moisture characteristics improve and seed banks are replenished.

Key parts of regeneration include leaving the immediate surroundings alone (so like, the first plot shouldn't be touching the second plot, for example) so animals can carry over seeds from uncultivated land. (Though the land isn't abandoned; wild plants and perennials can be foraged, and the open fields attract animals that are easily hunted)

I'm most familiar with shifting cultivation in Mizoram, but initially my interest in shifting cultivation came from Amazonian indigenous groups, as well as the Mende and Loma people of Western Africa because of the slash-and-char practices! (which I've talked about in this post)

Of course, because of private property and the decimation of nomadic lifestyles across the globe, most of us can't just burn down an acre for a year's grain before moving on. There have been a few farmers who have grown food forests (aka agroforestry), and successfully do shifting cultivation on a small scale for their grains! Here's are some drawn examples:

This method can be used in addition to the use of natural fertilizers (manure, compost, etc) and annual cover crops (which will die as native plants are reintroduced naturally; alternatively, native ground covers can be used)

Sometimes, instead of slashing and burning plants, animals are gated in the area and left to eat the vegetation to prepare it for planting!

Traditional & cultural examples of swidden farming include: milpa (Maya), jhum/ jhoom (Zomia region), chitemene (Zambian), reutbergwirtschaft (German), kaingin (Filipino), talun-kebun (Javanese), and so much more!

While they all fall under the swidden definition, they all have unique components to them! Like in Zambia and Western Java, trees are coppiced or pollarded instead of completely chopped down (which is similar to "inga alley cropping", which involves planting alleys of trees and heavily pruning them before growing annuals).

“Some argue that part of the immense diversity of these forests is due to shifting cultivation practices, rather than endangered by them.

Fire is one tool that is carefully used in these farming systems, which have been developed over generations to be appropriate to both the land and the community.“