Item Details

Title: SHIFTING CULTIVATION PRACTICES AND SUSTAINABLE FOREST LAND USE IN THE EVERGREEN FOREST OF CAMEROON

Date Published: 2001
Author/s: L. Nounamo and M. Yemefack
Data publication:
Funding Agency :
Copyright/patents/trade marks:
Journal Publisher:
Affiliation: Institute for Agricultural Research for the Development (IRAD), P.O.B. 2123, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
2
Tropenbos-Cameroon Programme, P.O.B. 219, Kribi, Cameroon
Keywords: shifting cultivation, farming systems, soil degradation, sustainability, forest land use,
Cameroon.

Abstract:

Studies were conducted conjointly on forest management and farming systems in order to achieve
sustainability of the forest production in the Tropenbos-Cameroon research site. Results on some
aspects of farming systems are here presented. They show that a farm in the evergreen forest of
Cameroon is composed of many subsystems interrelated and influenced by external biophysical and
socio-economic parameters. According to 92% of the farmers interviewed, the cropping subsystem
remains the first priority activity. In this cropping subsystem, 80% of the farmers considered
shifting cultivation involving food crop fields and fallow as their first priority land use type. Four
major crop associations highly linked to the preceding fallow type were identified in the food crop
fields