Observation

The question was popularly attempted but the performance of most of the candidates was poor. Shifting cultivation could be defined as the system of agriculture where farms are cultivated and when productivity decreases farmers abandon the farmland and move to another farmland with the entire household  to settle and farm.            
The characteristics of shifting cultivation in Nigeria are:

• virgin fertile lands are selected
• clearing of farm lands usually in dry season
• burning of cleared lands as one of the method of preparing the land
• rainfall is usually the source of water for cultivation
• weeding of undergrowth is periodic
• planting begins with first heavy rainfall
• tools usually used are simple e.g. ,cutlasses ,hoes ,dibble sticks etc
• farm sizes are small
• farming is essentially for subsistence
• practiced where farm land is abundant
• practiced where population is low
• technology application is low
• seasonal crops are cultivated
• returns of farm produce are relatively small
• manual labour is essentially used
• farm holdings are small

The benefits of shifting cultivation in Nigeria are:

• human energy is conserve by the use of fire
• burning provides ash as natural fertilizer
• supports the family unit
• tools used are simple and affordable
• several food crops are cultivated at a time therefore provides food security

The disadvantage of shifting cultivation in Nigeria are:

• system increases soil erosion
• poor management of land due to land fragmentation
• burning leads to the lost of organic matter
• ruin of soil quality
• economic viable trees are lost to burning
• system cannot support increasing population
• system cannot support   large scale cultivation of crops
• purely for subsistence and little for sale