Is fire use a viable tool to manage agricultural land? What knowledge and information is needed to make this approach to land management most sustainable?
From first principle. Prior to mineral (P, K, Ca) and synthetic fertilizer (N) and/or manure/dung, plough and animal traction, slash-and-burn was and is the only viable field crop farming in the dry-land forest biome. The slashed wooded vegetation needs to be removed and decomposed: P and K are locally recycled, N disperses in the atmosphere. The N concentration in the precipitation and the presence or absence of N fixation by plants determines the duration of the field-fallow cycle and therefore the amount of land needed per farm for sustainability over the centuries.
Only in case of tribes living in or around forests,it can be viable.It is something like jhoom cultivation
Although I recognize the long term knowledge of certain human cultures around the world that have been employing slash-and-burn cultivation for a long time (including jhoom) in northeast India, population pressure and the several years required for the land to recover some of its fertility may not be sustainable. Instead, permaculture and agroforestry systems that are designed and managed with agroecology in mind, provide tangible evidence for the potential of securing the livelihood of subsistence farmers around the world. Dr. Singh, thenk you for your latest reply to this question. Please suggest/share any published reference about jhoom cultivation, if you can. Many thanks!
It was sustainable for millennia. may be we should get rid of the main reason that made it unsustainable, the private ownership of land.
Thank you Kashyapa! I think the 'root' of the problem here is a matter of scale through which slash-and-burn cultivation is done.
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