Managed Fallows definition

Managed Fallows

For the purposes of the Workshop on Indigenous Strategies for Intensification of Shifting Cultivation in Southeast Asia, the definition of managed fallows is considered to be: "those fallows subjected to intentional manipulation by farmers for the purpose of achieving enhanced ecological efficiency, economic productivity, or some combination of the two benefits - and thus constituting an intensification of land use management".

There are many examples where swidden cultivators have successfully managed local resources to solve local problems. Farmer responses to intensification pressures may generally be classified as innovations to achieve:

more "effective" fallows - where the biological efficiency of fallow functions is improved, and the same or greater benefits can be achieved in a shorter time frame
more "productive" fallows - in which fallow lengths stay the same or actually lengthen as the farmer adds value to the fallow by introducing perennial economic species; and
combinations of the two trends, where a degree of both biophysical and economic benefits may be accrued.

The implications to land use of two major pathways towards swidden intensification are obviously profound. More effective or accelerated fallows often provide an intermediate step in a transition to permanent cultivation of annual crops. Alternatively, in more productive fallows, the phase of reopening and cultivation of annuals may eventually be foregone altogether as the farmer chooses to protect perennial vegetation, allowing it to develop into semi - or permanent agroforests.

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Last edited: August 1, 1996
Authors:
Christine Stockwell
Lucy Fisher
URLhttp://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/gmcc/mfdef.html