(a) Discuss the main features of rotational bush fallowing in West Africa (b) Describe the major factors affecting the practice of bush fallowing in West Af...

(a) Main features of rotational bush fallowing in West Africa

• The land is divided into several plots; some are cultivated while others are left fallow (resting) so that natural vegetation can regrow.
• Cultivation and fallowing rotate around the plots: after a plot has been cropped for two to three years it is abandoned, and the farmer moves to a rested plot, returning to the first after several years.
• Unlike shifting cultivation, the farmer keeps a permanent homestead and only rotates the farm plots around it.
• The fallow period allows the soil to recover its fertility naturally as vegetation returns nutrients and improves soil structure.
• Simple tools (hoe, cutlass) and family labour are used; farm sizes are small.
• Mixed cropping of food crops such as yam, cassava, maize and vegetables is common.
• Little or no chemical fertiliser is used; soil fertility is restored by the fallow and by ash from burning.

(b) Major factors affecting the practice of bush fallowing

• Population pressure: where population is high, land is scarce and fallow periods are shortened.
• Availability of land: plenty of land encourages longer fallow periods; land shortage discourages the practice.
• Soil fertility: poor tropical soils that lose fertility quickly make fallowing necessary.
• Climate and vegetation: the rate at which bush and grass regrow depends on rainfall and temperature.
• Level of technology: reliance on simple tools and lack of fertiliser makes fallowing the main way of restoring fertility.
• Land tenure system: communal land ownership allows farmers to move around and rest plots.
• Economic level and capital: subsistence farmers who cannot afford fertilisers depend on natural fallow.

(c) Problems associated with bush fallowing

• Shortened fallow periods due to population growth prevent full recovery of soil fertility, leading to declining yields.
• It requires large areas of land, which is wasteful where land is scarce.
• Low productivity means it can support only subsistence needs, not commercial farming.
• Burning of the fallow destroys soil organisms and exposes the soil to erosion.
• Scattered plots make supervision, mechanisation and provision of infrastructure difficult.
• It ties up land that could be used for permanent, more intensive agriculture.
• Continuous cropping when fallow is cut short leads to soil exhaustion and erosion.