Agricultural Systems in Africa
Senior 3 · Geography
Agricultural Systems in Africa
Lesson 1 of 5
30 min
In north-western Zambia, Kaonde farmers have long practised chitemene: they cut the branches from trees over a wide area of woodland, pile them on a smaller patch, burn the pile and sow millet in the ash. A few years later the patch is left to the bush and a new one is cleared. In Rwanda this could not work: in Season A of 2025, 1.399 million of the country's 2.376 million hectares were already being farmed (NISR, Seasonal Agricultural Survey 2025). Why do African farmers use such different systems, and what happens to a system when land runs short?
Figure 1. Shifting cultivation moves from plot to plot. Follow the arrows clockwise from step 1.
Definition
Agricultural system: the way a farm is organised: what it grows or keeps, how much land, labour and capital it uses, and where the produce goes. Subsistence farming: farming mainly to feed the farmer's own household, with only a small surplus sold. Fallow: farmland left uncultivated so that its soil can recover.
Shifting cultivation is the oldest farming system of tropical Africa. A community clears a patch of forest or woodland, burns the cut vegetation, grows crops for two or three years, and then moves on to clear a new patch when yields fall. The old plot is left for many years, often ten or more, until the bush has grown back. In true shifting cultivation the people move their homes too.
It is found where land is plentiful and population density is low: the Congo Basin rainforest (the DR Congo, Congo, Gabon, the Central African Republic) and the miombo woodlands of Zambia, where it is called chitemene. The main crops are cassava, yams, maize, plantains, upland rice, groundnuts and millet.
Definition
Shifting cultivation: a system in which farmers clear and burn a patch of vegetation, crop it for a few years, then abandon it and move, homes and all, to a new patch. Slash-and-burn: the clearing method used in shifting cultivation: vegetation is cut (slashed) and then burnt.
As population grows, people build permanent villages and stop moving their homes. They still rest the soil, but now the fields rotate around a fixed village: a field is cropped for two or three years, then left as bush fallow while the family farms another field nearby, and later the family comes back to the first one. This is rotational bush fallowing, common in the forest and savanna zones of West Africa, for example in southern Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone, where yams, cassava, maize and cocoyams are grown.
The fallow is shorter than in shifting cultivation and gets shorter as land runs out. Where the fallow becomes too short for the soil to recover, yields fall and farmers must turn to manure, fertiliser and crop rotation instead.
Definition
Rotational bush fallowing: a system in which the farmer's home is permanent, but the fields are rotated, each one cropped for a few years and then rested under bush.
Where population is dense, as in the highlands of Rwanda, Burundi, western Kenya and southern Uganda, there is no land to rest at all. Each family farms the same small plot every season. This is smallholder farming: permanent, intensive farming of a small plot by a household, using family labour, mostly with hand tools. Smallholders grow food for the family (beans, maize, sorghum, sweet potatoes, cassava, bananas, Irish potatoes) and sell the surplus. Many also grow a cash crop such as coffee or tea and keep a cow, goats or chickens, whose manure goes back on the fields.
Because the land is never rested, the soil must be fed. Rwanda's smallholders show how: in Season A of 2025, 88% of farmers applied organic fertiliser such as manure and compost, 63.2% applied inorganic fertiliser, and 37.3% planted improved seed (NISR, Seasonal Agricultural Survey 2025).
Definition
Smallholder farming: the permanent cultivation of a small family plot, mainly with family labour and hand tools, for food and some cash. Intercropping: growing two or more crops on the same plot at the same time, such as maize with climbing beans.
| Feature | Shifting cultivation | Rotational bush fallowing | Smallholder farming |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home | Moves with the plots | Permanent village | Permanent homestead |
| Fallow | Long, often 10 years or more | Shorter, a few years | None: cropped every season |
| Keeping soil fertile | Ash and long rest | Rest, some manure | Manure, compost, fertiliser, rotation |
| Population density | Very low | Low to moderate | High |
| Example areas | Congo Basin; chitemene in Zambia | Southern Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone | Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya highlands |
| Advantages | Problems |
|---|---|
| Cheap: few bought inputs. | Low yields and little to sell, so incomes stay low. |
| Mixed cropping spreads the risk of a crop failing. | Shifting cultivation needs a great deal of land per person. |
| Long fallows let soil and forest recover. | Burning destroys timber and wildlife and releases carbon dioxide. |
| Food for the family is grown close to home. | When fallows shorten, soils are exhausted and erode. |
| Uses local knowledge and simple tools. | Hand labour limits the area one family can farm. |
Worked example
Worked example 1: how much land does a fallow system need? A family must have 2 ha under crops every year. Each field is cropped for 2 years and then fallowed for 8 years. How much land does it need in all?
Worked example
Worked example 2: reading the survey. In Season A of 2025, 1.399 million ha of Rwanda's 2.376 million ha were used for agriculture (NISR). What share is that, and what does it tell us?
Warning
Shifting cultivation is not the same as bush fallowing. In both, land is rested under bush. The difference is the home: in shifting cultivation the settlement moves with the fields; in rotational bush fallowing the village stays and only the fields rotate. And "subsistence" does not mean nothing is sold: most subsistence farmers sell a small surplus.
Tip
Explain why a system changes, not only what it is. The examiner's favourite chain is: population grows → land becomes scarce → fallows shorten → soil fertility falls → farmers turn to manure, fertiliser and permanent cultivation.
Geography Masterclass: ten factors behind the decline of shifting cultivation in tropical Africa. As you watch, sort the factors into population, government policy and economic change.
Practice
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
