shifting cultivation

British  

noun

1. a land-use system, esp in tropical Africa, in which a tract of land is cultivated until its fertility diminishes, when it is abandoned until this is restored naturally

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Example Sentences

This marks a break from the traditional practice of shifting cultivation, which involves clearing a new patch of forest each year -- fuelling conflicts in a region facing rapid population growth.

From Barron's • Feb. 26, 2026

These Adivasi communities lived by shifting cultivation of millets and other subsistence crops, as well as rice cultivation, in forested mountains of eastern India.

From Scientific American • Jan. 5, 2023

But “that’s very different,” Cairns says, “from the sustainable, rotational shifting cultivation practices of indigenous peoples.”

From National Geographic • Mar. 8, 2016

Far from aggravating climate change, shifting cultivation could help indigenous peoples and the rest of humankind adapt to it.

From National Geographic • Mar. 8, 2016

The Birjhias are those who practised bewar or shifting cultivation in the forests, the name being derived from bewarjia, one living by bewar-sowing.

From The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume II by Russell, R. V. (Robert Vane)