“This volume brings together the best of science and farmer experimentation while vividly illustrating the power of human ingenuity.”
Joachim Voss, former senior research manager, International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada
Reviewed by Jay Scott Kanes
A weighty work in every way, Voices from the Forest, Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Sustainable Upland Farming (edited by Malcolm Cairns, RFF Press, 2007, Washington, 880 pages) shines a spotlight on some of the Asia-Pacific region’s most traditional and reliable farming methods.
Rotational shifting cultivation, sometimes called “swidden” or “slash-and-burn” agriculture, replenishes soil fertility through natural vegetative processes, not chemical fertilizers or the intensive techniques of chemical-free systems.
"Voices from the Forest may change some prejudices. Too many people associate shifting cultivation with deforestation, land degradation and smog,” said Malcolm, the editor.
“The book provides a menu of farmer-tested innovations, sharing them with the wider community of shifting cultivators who must cope with rising land-use pressures and market economies. It gives voices to the shifting cultivators, whose land management practices are rarely understood and often criticized.
“I’d consider this a humbler, farmer-up study of shifting cultivation, viewed from the eyes of the practitioners, not the top-down analysis by outside experts that usually dominates the literature.
“We’ve worked hard to include nearly all the region’s experts on shifting cultivation. Realistically, if we ‘foreign experts’ were parachuted into the uplands and given the same tools and other resources available to the farmers, most of us might starve within a year. That the farmers survive demands our respect.”
A Canadian-born PhD candidate at the Australian National University, Malcolm has devoted decades to observing agricultural techniques in Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, India, the Philippines, China and elsewhere.
“I’ve been fortunate to have a wide exposure to mountain farming systems across the Asia-Pacific, and was impressed by the patterns of farmer adaptations to land-use pressures,” Malcolm said. “I wanted others working with shifting cultivation to also see and understand this wider picture.”
Plans for the book emerged from a 1997 regional workshop organized by The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Bogor, Indonesia. More than 100 scholarly authors, including agronomists, agricultural economists, ecologists and anthropologists, contributed chapters. Countless indigenous farmers shared their experiences in this work.
“Trying to co-ordinate between so many authors would have been infinitely more difficult in the era before email,” said Malcolm. “But even so, it was a long process that required extraordinary patience from everyone involved.”
According to Yale University’s Michael R. Dove, “Voices from the Forest emphasizes the solutions offered by swidden agriculture.”
Biodiversity International regional director Percy Sajise says, “Natural-resource bases in the areas studied provide food and nutritional security for millions of poor shifting cultivators. The book makes essential reading for students, researchers and development workers.”
Case studies, charts, drawings and photos assess many of the fallow-management systems independently discovered by farmers.
“We resolutely shatter illusions that shifting cultivators are static and never change,” Malcolm said.
“Sharing the knowledge and combining it with scientific or technical advances may make indigenous practices and experiences more widely accessible and better understood. The book represents the intellectual property of shifting cultivators. They’re the ultimate clients of this work.”
For more information: www.rffpress.org
(May 6, 2007)
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