Description
Book SynopsisShifting cultivation or rotational bush fallowing is the predominant system of arable farming in the humid and sub-humid tropics where several hundred million people depend on this system of agriculture for their livelihood. Shifting Cultivation and Secondary Succession in the Tropics documents and systematizes findings in shifting cultivation over the last six decades and also characterizes secondary succession and related changes that fallow vegetation undergoes to the process of soil fertility restoration under bush fallow. It includes unique features such as graphical illustration of the organic matter equilibrium concept; correlation and multiple regression analysis; core-periphery analogy, encapsulated in the spatio-temporal model and the graphical unified model of succession and soil fertility restoration, therefore providing essential reading for researchers and students within tropical agriculture and related fields such as forestry, geography, environmental science and tropical development.
Table of Contents1: The Tropics 2: Shifting Cultivation: Definition, Basic Features and Types 3: Soil Dynamics during Cropping 4: Soil Dynamics during the Fallow Period 5: Fallow Vegetation Dynamics 6: Relationships between Fallow Soil and Vegetation 7: Ecological Succession Theory and Models 8: Theory and Models of Soil Fertility Restoration under Bush Fallow 9: Intensification of Shifting Cultivation 10: Alternative Farming Systems and the Future of Shifting Cultivation
