Authors: Adedire, M.O.
Abstract
Consequently, one of the reasons adduced for the shortfall in food production in Africa is that the bush fallow system of farming practiced in the continent has broken down. This is attributable to rising population pressure and the infertile soils resulting from short fallows (Wilson and Kang, 1981).
Generally, it has been stressed that once there is a population of about a hundred (100) people per square kilometer, shifting cultivation will not be able to sustain them. Fallow period gets shorter and the restoration of soil fertility gets lower. This according to Okali (Pers. Comm.) will lead to land degradation.Food insecurity is becoming a major problem in the tropical developing countries. Many actors are responsible for the development. Prominent among these is land degradation and unsustainable for the development. Prominent among these is land degradation and unsustainable crop husbandry. Traditional peasant agriculture is based on long fallow systems, which maintain soil fertility. Shifting cultivation together with its bush fallow system has remained a dominant method of land cultivation for food production in large parts of Africa and Asia. In the past, this method of land cultivation was sustainable and well adapted to the biophysical environments of the tropical region when population was sparse and scattered. But as population increase rapidly, land resources have to bear enormous demographic pressures.