Slash and Burn Agriculture in Yoruba Farming and Agroforestry systems

• In Event: Preservation, Decolonization, and Knowledge Passing Over Time

Abstract

Agricultural practice began during the neolithic revolution that transformed human society from hunting and gathering to planting crops. The demand to feed their nuclear and extended family led to exploration of several agricultural techniques, trial and error systems which have laid the foundation for modern-day agricultural practice, among the techniques adopted was slash and burn agriculture. It is referred to as the oldest agricultural land use that involves the transformation of forests into farmland through a method of slashing and burning. Thus, it became a universal method for an average farmer. One of the advantages that enhanced this system overtime is low capital cost. Although it had several advantages for the farmer such as removal of biomass off the land and supply nutrients back to the soil, elimination of weed, pest and disease off the farmland, it also had several negative effect and consequences on man, his society and climatic condition.
To that end this study aims at the historical analysis of slash and burn agriculture in Yoruba farming and agroforestry systems. The specific objectives are to: trace the origin of slash and burn agriculture in Yoruba farming, evaluate the environmental impact of slash and burn among Yoruba farmers, examine the laws, decrees and policies surrounding the practice of slash and burn in yorubaland and examine the introduction of agroforestry into Yoruba farming. This work adopts the historical method of data gathering and analysis.
The practice of slash and burn is deeply rooted in the culture and tradition of communities. However, most of the indigenous farmers who practiced the system only saw it as a means to an end, however, their actions had severe environmental and climatic effects on their lands, food security and human society.

Author

• Foluso Olaitan Oyewumi, University of Ibadan