Answer the following questions:

What is shifting cultivation? What are its disadvantages?

Shifting cultivation is that process of agriculture where a small area of forest is cleared by cutting down all the trees and by burning. The ashes are mixed with the soil to make it more fertile and land is used for agriculture. When the soil loses its fertility, cultivators then shift to another patch of land and repeat the process.

Disadvantages of shifting cultivation are:

a. It leads to the deforestation and loss of natural vegetation.

b. The deforested patch of land when left abandoned makes soil lose which becomes more prone to soil erosion.