ABSTRACT
Reading this volume from cover to cover, as I necessarily had to do in order to prepare this chapter, was both an enlightening and a sobering experience. It was enlightening because I learned so much about so many different fallow management systems. Clearly, our research community has gathered a great deal of knowledge about fallow management in diverse swidden systems in many different ecological and social settings. Compared to just 30 years ago when, even in the most careful studies of swiddening, the fallow phase was largely ignored, much has been learned. It was a sobering experience because it made me recognize that, despite these advances, our understanding remains patchy and fragmentary. This volume contains many case studies of how fallow management is practiced in specific local contexts. It describes the ways in which a variety of plant species is used to achieve farmers’ fallow management objectives, and it examines some of the cultural and economic constraints on improving fallow management in some of these study sites. But the information is incomplete and highly site-specific. Many aspects of fallow management are not yet understood, and explanations rely heavily on commonsense assumptions that have not been empirically verified. We still have a very long way to go before we have an adequate understanding of fallow management.
