Environmental Implicationof Shifting Cultivation in Nagaland

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ASSIGNMENT Topic: Environmental Implication of Shifting Cultivation in Nagaland Paper: GEOG 502C Environmental Geography Submitted to: Submitted by: Dr. M.S.Rawat Sentilong Aier Associate Professor Research Scholar Deptt.of Geography Deptt.of Geography NU, Lumami NU, Lumami INTRODUCTION Agriculture is the artificial cultivation and processing of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fibers and other byproducts. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the development of much denser and more stratified societies. Agriculture has played a key role in the development of human civilization. Until the Industrial Revolution, the vast majority of the human population labored in agriculture. Development of agricultural techniques has steadily increased agricultural productivity, and the widespread diffusion of these techniques during a time period is often called an agricultural revolution. A remarkable shift in agricultural practices has occurred over the past century in response to new technologies. Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, and then abandoned. This system often involves clearing of a piece of land followed by several years of wood harvesting or farming, until the soil loses fertility. Once the land becomes inadequate for crop production, it is left to be reclaimed by natural vegetation, or sometimes converted to a different long-term cyclical farming practice. Alternatively, shifting cultivation can be said to be a farming system which involves clearance of fresh land for crop growing and after realization of a reduction in crop yields, the farmer moves on to a fresh plot of land. Of these

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