Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Field Note
“Attempts to tame wildlife started in ancient times, and
still continue. At Hunter's Lodge on the Nairobi-Mombasa
road, we met an agricultural offi cer who reported that an
animal domestication experiment station was located not
far into the bush, about 10 miles south. On his invitation,
we spent the next day observing this work. In some herds,
domestic animals (goats) were combined with wild gazelles,
all penned together in a large enclosure. This was not work-
ing well; all day the gazelles seek to escape. By comparison,
these eland were docile, manageable, and in good health.
Importantly, they also were reproducing in captivity. Here,
our host describes the program.”
Figure 11.5
Nairobi, Kenya .
© H. J. de Blij.
Mexican states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Guerrero have
largely returned to subsistence agriculture. The Nation
reported in 2010 that Zapatista farmers have “in effect
chosen to withdraw from the national economy, some
weaning themselves off expensive chemical fertilizers and
subsisting on corn they can grow, harvest, and barter.”
Some subsistence farmers are sedentary, living in one
place throughout the year, but many others move from place
to place in search of better land. The latter engage in a form
of agriculture known as shifting cultivation . This type of
agriculture is found primarily in tropical and subtropical
zones, where traditional farmers had to abandon plots of land
after the soil became infertile. Once stripped of their natural
vegetative cover and deprived of the constant input of nutri-
ents from decaying vegetative matter on the forest fl oor, soils
in these regions can quickly lose their nutrients as rain water
leaches out organic matter. Faced with these circumstances,
farmers move to another parcel of land, clear the vegetation,
turn the soil, and try again. Shifting cultivation gave ancient
farmers opportunities to experiment with various plants, to
learn the effects of weeding and crop care, to cope with envi-
ronmental vagaries, and to discern the decreased fertility of
soil after sustained farming.
With shifting cultivation, parcels of land are worked
successively. The farmers fi rst clear vegetation from a par-
cel of land. Next they plant crops that are native to the
region: tubers in the humid, warm tropical areas, grains in
the more humid subtropics, and vegetables and fruits in
cooler zones. When the village grows too large and the
distance to usable land becomes too great, part of the vil-
lage's population may establish a new settlement some
distance away. Population densities in areas of shifting agri-
culture cannot be very high; therefore, shifting cultivation
continues only in areas where population densities are low.
One specifi c kind of shifting cultivation is slash-and-
burn agriculture (also called swidden, milpa, or patch
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