Shifting cultivation, a field recently cleared of tropical rain forest for agricultural land, burned and planted with corn in Belize, Central America
Trees were hand cleared with axes and machetes then burned. The 2 week old corn crop was planted at the beginning of the rainy season. Weeds and other pests are at a minimum. The physical and chemical condition of the soil is favorable after the fire releases a nutrient flush. Highest yields are usually reached during the first crop in the shifting cultivation cycle. The remainder of the cycle continues with growth of crops for a few years, abandonment when weed competition, pest infestation or declining soil fertility appear, re-establishment of a volunteer plant community during a fallow phase, and re-clearing, usually in 2 to 3 decades. This form of agriculture is widely practised in the tropics.
Size: 3060px × 1991px
Location: Cayo District, Belize
Photo credit: © Rosanne Tackaberry / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: agricultural, agriculture, agronomy, america, american, belize, belizean, burn, burnt, carbon, cayo, central, clear, clearcut, cleared, clearing, cultivation, cut, cutting, cycle, deforestation, deforested, district, endangered, environment, environmental, farm, farming, farmland, field, fields, forest, forests, habitat, jungle, jungles, landscape, loss, maize, mesoamerica, milpa, planted, rain, rainforest, rural, seedbed, shifting, slash, slopes, soil, soils, subsistence, swidden, topsoil, traditional, trees, tropical, tropics
