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Types of farming

(i) Shifting Cultivation: This is a traditional form of agriculture which is practised in the tropics and subtopics by societies which do not have permanent homes, but moves from one place to another.
(ii) Land rotation: This is a modified form of shifting cultivation. A farmer clears an area of bush, cultivates the land until its fertility decreases, allows it to lie fallow to regain its fertility and then returns to cultivate it again.
    Like shifting cultivation, land rotation is an uneconomical and wasteful farming practice. It cannot provide for the needs of a rapidly growing human population. Often, the land is not left to lie fallow long enough to allow it to regain its fertility before it is cultivated again. This eventually damages the soil and converts the land into into a barren desert. This form of farming is a major factor in the destruction of tropical forests.

(iii) Pastoral Farming: This is a traditional type of farming. Certain tribes keep only grazing livestock such as cattle, sheep and goats. They move with their livestock along the same routes at definite seasons of the year. These routes follow the rain so that the livestock get good grazing land. The routes also avoid areas infested with pests like tsetse flies. In this type of farming, overgrazing of poor pastures may lay the land bare and expose it to soil erosion.
(iv) Crop rotation: In most countries, crop rotation has replaced land rotation and shifting cultivation. Crops in a rotation plan are grown on a piece of land in a particular order and rotated through a three, four, five or six year period. A well closed crop rotation plan will allow the continuous use of land while maintaining soil fertility and controlling pests and diseases at the same time. This farming practice is, there important in the present world where agriculturally suitable land is scarce and the population is large and increasing all the time.

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