Studies in cropping system of slash-and-burn method of agriculture and its origin. XIX. Effect of telling and weeding on weed vegetation in slash-and-burn land.

A review of studies on swidden agriculture in Japan: cropping system and disappearing process

“…Studies on the effects of burning and cropping on soil properties in Japanese swidden agriculture can be grouped into the following categories: 1) a series of field experiments by Sugawara and Shindo (Sugawara 1979a;Sugawara and Shindo 1982, Sugawara and Shindo 1983, Sugawara and Shindo 1985, Sugawara and Shindo 1987, 2) studies related to swidden forest plantation systems (turnip cropping with Japanese cedar or Japanese cypress planting) (Su et al 1996, Ohtsuka et al 2006, and 3) a series of studies on experimental swidden agriculture on Iriomote Island, Okinawa Prefecture (Kamura et al 1982, Kamura and Komatsu 1991, Oya and Tokashiki 1984, Kumada et al 1985. In their experiments, Sugawara and Shindo reported 1) the alleviation of soil acidity and the increase in exchangeable bases by ash addition through burning, 2) rapid soil acidification caused by Japanese barnyard millet and foxtail millet cropping, and 3) lower soil fertility in tillage treatment until the second year compared with no tillage treatment.…”

“…To verify the relationship between the yield of Japanese barnyard millet and labor input with or without tillage, Sugawara and Shindo (1987) conducted a field experiment. They reported that a tillage treatment increased both the species number and the total number of germinated weeds as well as the yield of Japanese barnyard millet, compared with treatment without tillage.…”