Names of shifting cultivation worldwide
Topic: Primary Activities: Gathering, Pastoralism, Agriculture and Mining · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 4 "Agriculture"
Meaning
Shifting cultivation, also called slash-and-burn farming, is practised by tribal groups across the tropics. Farmers clear forest by fire, use the ash as fertiliser, grow crops for a few years, and then move to a new patch. The same system has a different local name in each region. UPSC often asks you to match each name to its region.
- Jhuming: North-East India
- Milpa: Mexico and Central America
- Ladang: Indonesia and Malaysia
- Conuco: Venezuela
- Roca: Brazil
- Masole: Central Africa
- Ray: Vietnam
Example
In the hills of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram in North-East India, shifting cultivation is called jhuming. Farmers grow crops on burnt hill slopes and then move to a fresh patch.
Don't confuse with
- Ladang and Ray: both are in Southeast Asia, but Ladang belongs to Indonesia and Malaysia, while Ray belongs to Vietnam.
Related concepts
- Subsistence agriculture
- Jhum cycle
- Intensive subsistence agriculture
- Wet paddy dominated intensive subsistence agriculture
- Intensive subsistence agriculture dominated by non-paddy crops
- Major rice exporters