a primitive, more or less unregulated method of cyclical cultivation, still widely practiced in the tropics, whereby cultivators cut some or all of the tree crop, burn it, and raise agricultural crops for one or more years before moving on to another site and repeating the process —note 1. shifting cultivation has numerous native names including chena (Sri Lanka), kaingin (Philippines), kumri (India), ladang (Malaysia), parcelero (Puerto Rico), shamba (Kenya), and taungya (Myanmar) —note 2. if practiced from a fixed settlement on a fairly regular cycle, shifting cultivation is termed the bush fallow system (mainly Africa), a form of land rotation —see slash and burn, transhumance This definition last updated 08/04/2008