Sedentary Farming Meaning, Characteristics, Advantages, Disadvantages

Sedentary Farming

Sedentary agriculture refers to farming that takes place in a single location by a settled farmer without rotating the fields. In contrast to shifting cultivation, the word was used to describe early agriculturalists in tropical Africa who cultivated the same plot of land indefinitely.

Sedentary farming is a more advanced form of subsistence agriculture practised in the tropical lowlands. Here the people settle on the land and earn their livelihood from agriculture. Hence, it is sometimes called Sedentary subsistence agriculture. Cultivators stay permanently on the land in this type of farming, and the farmlands are reused continuously.

Read More: Intensive Farming

Sedentary Farming Nature & Method of Cultivation

Many aboriginal people of the tropical region are engaged in this type of farming. The method of agriculture is better than the shifting farming and has been becoming modern in recent times. Farm machinery, fertilisers, and high-yielding seeds are now used to grow more crops.

Read More: Subsistence Farming

Sedentary Farming Areas of Practice

Sedentary farming is largely limited to tropical regions, where fallow areas are routinely used again and the cultivator is continually stationed in one place. Sedentary primitive agriculture is practised in small patches in the hot and humid lowlands, in the hot-dry lowlands, and in the subtropical plateaus and highlands of the tropics. It is practised in the equatorial and subtropical parts, of tropical Africa, Central America, and tropical South America. When opposed to shifting cultivation, crop rotation gives more consideration to the soil and the crop that is sown.

This type of farming is found in many regions of  Africa, such as in the Savanna region (Masai and Huasa people have been now settling and practising this type of farming), in the Amazon basin of South America and in some parts of South East Asia.

Read More: Extensive Farming

Sedentary Farming Examples of Crops Grown

A wide variety of crops are grown. The land is engaged in producing a variety of staple foods, such as maize, sorghums, manioc, yams, peanut, sugarcane, cotton, millets, and other crops; rice and wheat are also grown in some places. The main food crops of Latin America and Africa are maize, cassava, millet, and rice. Wheat is also grown in some regions; barley, potatoes, and root crops are grown in cooler highland areas in tropical regions.

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Sedentary Farming Characteristics

Sedentary cultivation is characterized by the following features:

• Crops grown in this farming vary from place to place.
• Sedentary farming employs a large population of the world.
• It is a type of subsistence agriculture;
• Crop production differs from place to place due to the density of the population.

Read More: Types of Soil in India

Sedentary Farming Advantages

• Sedentary farming offers permanent interest in land. Hence, the land is conserved.
• Farmers get permanent benefits from land.
• Soil is preserved. Hence, it restricts soil erosion.
• Sedentary agriculture facilitates agricultural research. Thus, it presents scope for agricultural development.

Read More: Monsoon in India

Sedentary Farming Disadvantages

• The demerits of sedentary agriculture are small and they differ from place to place.
• In sedentary farming, sometimes, soil exhaustion poses problems. It can be overcome by introducing crop rotation and using fertilizers.

Read More: Natural Vegetation of India

Sedentary Farming UPSC

An agricultural method known as sedentary agriculture involves working the same piece of ground every year. Agriculture is practised in a single location. It is the most basic kind of agriculture. The soil loses nutrients as a result of inactive farming. More cattle, including cows and buffalo, are kept by the farmer. Domesticated animals are utilised for milk production, meat production, and draught. Crops are typically planted during the cool season, grow during the wet season, and are harvested during the dry season.

In this sort of agricultural system, crops like maize, millets, paddy, vegetables, sweet potatoes, root crops, bananas, tapioca, squash, tobacco, small millets, and pulses are grown. In the off-season, many sedentary farmers in South America and Southeast Asia find work in plantations and make frequent trips back to their houses with their earnings. Subsistence sedentary farming is frequently linked with the growth of commercial crops or the gathering and selling of forest products in Southeast Asia and West Africa.

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