Merit & Limitations:

AS AN ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM — MERITS & LIMITATIONS

Shifting cultivation gas value to man in a very different context of space and time in comparison with other farming systems.

At first look, shifting cultivation has higher energy production efficiency than other cultivation,e.g. plantation agriculture.

1) Shifting agriculture has a high Er = 10 to 70, because it is a low-enery, low-fuel / non-fuel-subsidized farming system, and at the pre-industrial stage of energy intensification.This high enery ration can only be achieved by good climate(high rainfall and high temperature) and sudden release of nutrient by burning of rainforest.

2) It is primitive form of arable farming with a short food chain with 2 levels, with linear, shorter-run energy flow, shorter-route flow,faster nutrient recycling then livestock farming.

3) High tempreatures and heavy precipitation favour vigorous plant/crop growth without much human effort -- naturally favoured.It is capable of sustaining a small population at a low man-land ratio.

4) Although shifting cultivation appears to be a wasteful use of land, it has no long-term adverse effect upon the environment provided the fallow period is sufficiently long for humus to restore.

5) Compared with the other modern forms of land use in the tropical rainforest,e.g cattle ranching, commercail lumbering, HEP schemes, dam and reservoir construction, highway development, etc.shifting cultivation is a more sustainable land use.

6) This farming system can conserve the natural environment if it is carried out in a suitable man-land ratio.

HOWEVER,

1) large areas have to be reserved for bush fallowing

2) The output will drop sharply after a few years of cultivation.

3) The output from an unit area of land is not high when compared to other agriculture(plantation agriculture), thus this farming system is only suitable to area inhabited by primitive people whose level of technology is not high.

4) It has little relationship with market

5) Low labour input and low labour prouctivity

6) Capital input virtually non-existent

7) Essentially for subsistence with little surplus for export thus little economic contribution.

Drawback/Weakness

economically it contributes little to the national economy in terms of financial gain/cash, socially it contributes little to the nation in term of food supply and employment in other economic sectors(manufacturing, transport, other services, etc.)

Therefore, it cannot support a growing population without causing adverse effects to the natural environmnent.
Its merits are lost if population increases significantly because this necessitates shortening fallow period and quickening return to land not fully recovered.