Explanation: The vegetation is usually cleared by fire, and the ashes add to the fertility of the soil. Shifting cultivation is thus also called slash and burn agriculture.

• The cultivated patches are very small, and cultivation is done with very primitive tools such as sticks and hoes.
• After some time (3 to 5 years) the soil loses its fertility, and the farmer shifts to another parts and clears other patches of the forest for cultivation.
• The farmer may return to the earlier patch after some time. One of the major problems of shifting cultivation is that the cycle of jhum becomes less and less due to loss of fertility in different parcels.
• It is prevalent in tropical region in different names, e.g. Jhuming in Northeastern states of India, Milpa in Central America and Mexico and Ladang in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Source: NCERT XII- Fundamental of Human Geography