Agriculture & Farming (Q&A)

Answer:

Slash-and-burn technique is harmful for the environment because:

• It involves cutting and burning of forests or woodlands for cultivation. Tropical forests are habitats for extremely biologically diverse ecosystems, typically containing large numbers of endemic and endangered species, none of which can be reclaimed once the area has undergone cultivation.

• It assists desertification, as some soils become so poor after this practice that there is no further growth of any type, for generations.

• Some slash and burn activities can render soils incapable of further yields for generations especially in madagascar.

• Such practices also lead to extinction or loss of population of various plants and animal species, some of which may not have been discovered. It has already resulted in Holocene extinction event, which led to the extinction of a large number of animals.

• The great amount of smoke after a large fire pollutes the air, with some runaway fires expanding as large as 400 x 600 km.

• The large carbon tissues in the giant tropical forest trees leads to increase in carbon production thereby affecting the atmosphere.

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