In this type of farming system, usually a small extent of forest land is cleared for growing crops. Mostly tribal farmers used to practice this. This is done by removing dried up trees, burning tree trunks, tree branches, and other weeds. Generally, farmers cultivate this kind of lands for 2 to 3 years as soil fertility goes down. After this, farmers move on to other forest areas and repeat a similar kind of process. Millets, vegetables and corn/maize crops are grown in this type of system.
In this farming system, you can expect a very low yield per acre. This kind of practice is called by different names in different states in India. This is called Podu in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Ponam in Kerala and Bera in Madhya Pradesh, and Jhum in Assam. However, the government discouraged this farming system due to issues with soil erosion in forest areas.

Main features of Shifting Agriculture include:

  • The cultivation is practiced by destroying forests plants.
  • Usually, the land does not involve any kind of cultural practice including ploughing.
  • Just plant seeds are sown in the soil.
  • This farming system is good only for 2 to 3 years as the yield of the crop decreases due to leaching out the nutrients from the ground (decreased soil fertility due to soil erosion).
  • This is considered as one of the bad farming systems.


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