Farming Systems: Shifting, Rainfed, and Plantation Agriculture
Farming Systems: A Comparative Analysis
Shifting Cultivation
Shifting cultivation is practiced in equatorial and humid tropical regions of Africa, the Americas, and parts of Asia. The agricultural landscape consists of irregular plots surrounding villages, cultivated using primitive techniques and tools. During the dry season, the land is prepared by clearing the forest through slashing and cutting trees with machetes. The vegetation is then burned, and the potash-rich ash is used as fertilizer.
Crops are planted by digging holes in the ground with a stick and placing the seeds. Harvesting is also done manually. The soil is cultivated until its fertility declines, at which point the farmers move to another location and repeat the process. The soil requires at least 25 years to recover. This type of agriculture requires large areas and supports low population densities, around 15 inhabitants per square kilometer.
Production is limited and based on the polyculture of cereals (millet, maize) and other products (cassava, yams, peanuts) intended for consumption. Land ownership and labor tend to be collective.
Currently, shifting cultivation is evolving to cope with population growth. Technology is improving with logging and the use of mechanized plowing, and cultivation is intensified by reducing the fallow period. However, this increases the risk of soil erosion and over-exploitation.
Rainfed Sedentary Agriculture
Rainfed sedentary agriculture is located in the tropical dry climate zone of the sub-Saharan African savanna and parts of South America and Asia.
The agricultural landscape is divided into two parts around the village. Gardens near dwellings are used to grow vegetables, maize, and beans throughout the year, fertilized with household waste or animal manure. The land around the village is divided into three parts or leaves, worked collectively. They rotate a main crop such as millet or maize, another complementary crop such as peanuts and root crops, and a fallow period, during which cattle, sheep, and goats are introduced. These animals provide food, fertilizer, and labor. This system does not deplete the soil and allows for the permanent settlement of the population and a higher population density (50 inhabitants per square kilometer).
Currently, leveraging the herbaceous vegetation of the savanna is encouraging commercial livestock farming. However, this faces problems such as the poor quality of livestock breeds, difficulties in accessing markets due to poor communications, and a lack of means to combat livestock diseases.
Plantation Agriculture
Plantation agriculture areas are located in humid tropical climates, near the coasts of Central and South America, Southeast Asia, and the Gulf of Guinea in Africa. Traditional plantations, established by the Spanish and Portuguese in the sixteenth century, cultivated a few products such as sugar cane and cotton using abundant slave labor.
The current agricultural landscape features large plots worked with high levels of investment and technology, and abundant cheap labor, where work cannot be mechanized.
Production is massive and specialized in high-demand products in developed countries, where they cannot be grown for climatic reasons. These products are intended for human consumption (banana, pineapple, coffee) or industry (cotton, rubber, and palm oil). Production is geared towards obtaining the lowest possible prices for products to sell in the international market, making it a clear example of speculative agriculture.
The land is owned by large multinational companies from developed countries, which control prices and markets for these products.
The problems of plantations include fluctuations in international demand, the appearance of synthetic competitors for some products (synthetic rubber), soil degradation due to intensive monoculture, and tropical pests damaging crops. Solutions include promoting crop diversification, the use of manure, the introduction of livestock in depleted fields, insecticide use, and research on tropical diseases.