Final answer:
Slash-and-burn agriculture, or shifting cultivation, is a traditional farming method used in rainforests to enrich poor soils by cutting, drying, and burning vegetation. This practice is land-intensive, labor-light, and can be sustainable with small populations but has significant environmental impacts when the practice intensifies due to population growth.
Step-by-step explanation:
Slash-and-burn horticulture, also known as shifting cultivation, is a traditional farming method often used in rainforest regions where soil fertility is low due to excessive rainfall leaching away vital nutrients. To replenish the soil, farmers clear a patch of forest, allow the vegetation to dry, and then burn it. The ash from the burnt vegetation is then mixed with the soil to act as fertilizer, providing nutrients for crops for a few years until the soil becomes infertile again. Farms then move to a new plot while the old one is left fallow to regenerate.
Although this method is labor-light, it requires a large amount of land to be sustainable; it is also considered highly caloric efficient due to its low labor requirements. Slash-and-burn agriculture is sustainable only as long as the population remains small, and the practice does not overly stress the environment. However, with increasing population pressure, this practice can lead to deforestation and environmental degradation.
In regions where slash-and-burn agriculture is practiced, such as parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, it serves as a means to temporarily enrich poor soils and support agricultural activities. However, it involves extensive land use and has consequences such as deforestation, making it a subject of environmental concerns.