Historical origin of slash-and-burn cultivation
The remaining agricultural management mode in the Neolithic Age belongs to the primitive barren farming system. First use a stone axe, then use an iron axe to cut down the dead roots and stems of trees on the ground, then dry the vegetation and burn it with fire. After the fire, the land became soft and could not be turned over. Plant ash on the surface is used as fertilizer, but it is not fertilized after sowing. It is usually planted in another place after one year. Due to extensive management, the yield per mu is only about 50 kilograms, commonly known as "planting a slope and harvesting a radish". As early as 5000 BC to 3000 BC, chestnut and millet were planted by slash-and-burn and land rotation in Yangshao Cultural Area in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, and rice was also planted in this way in Yunnan as early as the Neolithic Age1260 ~100 BC.
During the Warring States period, slash-and-burn farming methods were widely used by indigenous people in Yunnan. After BC 1 century, slash-and-burn farming gradually decreased in central and western Yunnan, but it remained in remote mountainous areas. With the evolution of production tools from stone knives, chisels, axes and sticks to iron knives, hoes and plows, the cultivated crops have developed from single rice to cash crops such as rice, corn, beans, miscellaneous grains and even sugarcane and oil crops, and the farming methods have also developed from slash-and-burn and abandoned land to crop rotation, crop rotation and multiple cropping. Since 1978, the original slash-and-burn mode of production has been basically abolished in frontier ethnic areas and remote mountainous areas because of increasing agricultural investment, building irrigation and water conservancy projects, implementing fixed cultivated land and prohibiting deforestation for land reclamation.
Other information about slash-and-burn
Speaking of slash and burn, many people will see an ancient scene in their minds. A group of people were dressed in skins and naked. They waved broadswords and spears, cut down trees and set them on fire. Then they poke holes in the ground with wooden awls, sow some seeds casually, don't plant land, don't fertilize, don't weed ..., which is associated with bad words such as backwardness, barbarism, ignorance and low productivity. When environmental protection, ecology and other words entered the mainstream ideology, slash-and-burn was criticized as one of the factors that destroyed the environment. "slash and burn, beautiful scenery." It can be called a way to compare purchases. ***
Wa people in Ximeng, or Nu people and Dulong people in Nujiang River basin, have been slash and burn for hundreds or even thousands of years. If this way of life can't live in harmony with nature, according to the viewpoint of evolution, it has long been eliminated by nature!
The most typical form of slash-and-burn is called "no-rotation rest". A piece of land is abandoned for leisure after only one season, and the leisure period is about ten years. This kind of land is called "lazy land" by many ethnic groups, which means that you can get a harvest without much effort, so it is the first choice of all ethnic groups. Only when the population increases and the land is insufficient will there be a "rotation pattern". Slash-and-burn is not burning wasteland aimlessly in the virgin forest, but it has been carefully planned for a long time. Therefore, this agricultural way should be guaranteed by relevant social systems. For example, they will divide the lazy land in the village into, for example, ten parts, and let them plant one part a year and cycle once every ten years. Under normal circumstances, it is not the virgin forest that is burned, but their "land". Villagers cut down trees, burn wasteland, sow seeds and harvest in compulsory mountainous areas, and each process has traditional rules. For example, before the fire, the fire escape should be cleaned and guarded by a special person to prevent the mountain fire from crossing the border. When cutting down a tree, leave a stake for the big tree and a root for the small tree, so that they can grow taller again in the spring breeze next year.
Burning wasteland has many advantages. The laterite in Yunnan is mostly acidic, while that in plant ash is alkaline, which can improve the soil. Grass seeds and eggs are cooked by fire, and there is almost no need to weed and prevent insects. The so-called slash-and-burn is just a symbolic statement. If it is really plowed, it will be bad. Because deep ploughing will bury plant ash below and dig out the eggs and grass seeds deep in the soil. The timing of burning the ground is also a specialized knowledge. Burning late will delay the farming season, and burning early will not sow immediately, but will give weeds an opportunity. It would be a pity for outsiders to cut a piece of land and burn it for only one year. The shorter the cultivation time, the easier it is for roots to revive, the easier it is for vegetation to recover and the less soil erosion. Every year, the newly burned land has been restored for nearly ten years, which can ensure that the soil fertility is always new. In this way, the villagers will always have land to plant, mountains to harvest and hunting, forming a virtuous circle with nature.
Farming is also learning. Many ethnic groups are implementing different interplanting plans. There are * * * upland rice, beans hanging in the air, millet crawling on the ground, * * * pumpkins, and * * * yams drilled underground, as many as a dozen or even dozens, making full use of the sun and land. Therefore, it is also called "treasure land". Mr. Yin pointed out that the comprehensive income of treasure land is much higher than that of fixed cultivated land, and at the same time, the required working hours are half less than that of rotation hoeing, which mainly saves weeding and pest control. So this mode of production is the result of the active choice of the mountain people. Only when there is a shortage of arable land can we adopt the method of rotating cultivation. In Mr. Yin's view, knife ploughing, hoeing and ploughing are not three agricultural methods in different stages of development, but three agricultural methods in different occasions. The latter two are not more advanced than slash-and-burn cultivation, but the result of the tension between man and nature.
Many ethnic groups know that watermelons are planted in lazy fields. Watermelon tree is a fast-growing tree with many fallen leaves and rhizobia that can fix nitrogen, which is beneficial to strengthen soil fertility. Wa people in Ximeng are harvesting grain and planting trees, Jingpo people in Yingjiang Kachang are planting trees and upland rice seeds at the same time, and Dulong and Nu people in Nujiang are planting saplings. This rich diversity shows that slash-and-burn farming is not because of ignorance, but because of a deep "understanding" of the nature of its life.
There are still areas in China that retain their traditions. As a country, it is a shame if it cannot protect these traditions. Forcibly pulling these areas into the industrial civilization system is tantamount to using antiques as firewood. These surviving cultural heritages are not only our wealth today, but also their value to future mankind far exceeds our imagination. On the one hand, we can learn from the traditional wisdom of survival and use local resources to realize the wisdom of sustainable survival and happy survival. On the other hand, when the industrial civilization system collapses, it is the most likely ark of human civilization and the most likely spark of new human civilization.
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