Report of work group shifting cultivation and traditional agriculture

Abstract

In many parts of the American tropics shifting cultivation has been the traditional form of agriculture for centuries. Such a system has provided the basis for survival for a majority of the population. Traditional agriculturalists have developed relatively stable, efficient cropping systems which reflect an empirical knowledge of ecological theory. Farmers have utilized a strategy of sustained yield with a minimum of imports from outside the system, unlike the modern technological approach of maximizing yields on the short term by maximizing outside imports. The intensive study of the structure and function of traditional agroecosystems, especially the aspects of N-cycling, can provide information of immediate application in the improvement of such systems.