SLASH-AND-BURN AGRICULTURE

method of cultivation often used by tropical-forest root-crop farmers in various parts of the world and by dry-rice cultivators of the forested hill country of Southeast Asia. Areas of the forest are burned and cleared for planting; the ash provides some fertilization, and the plot is relatively free of weeds. After several years of cultivation, fertility declines and weeds increase; the area is left fallow and reverts to secondary forest of bush. Cultivation then shifts to a new plot; after about a decade the old site may be reused.