ABSTRACT
Fire is one of the oldest tools humans have used in managing agriculture; it has probably been used deliberately since agriculture began. Fire is the major means for clearing land in forested areas; it figures significantly in the destruction of the rain forests. The practice of slash and burn agriculture consists of clearing plots from the forest and allowing the cut vegetation to dry, then burning, and finally planting crops in the ashes. Over centuries however, traditional farmers developed slash and burn agriculture systems as a solution to the soil depletion problems and as a method for managing pests. Burning, as well as rotation, polycropping, wide spacing, diversity, and shading, are practices that reduce losses from disease and other pests in slash and burn agriculture. The Indians of the Amazon, West African farmers, and the mountain people of the Philippines, have had no personal contacts, yet the similarity of their slash and burn agriculture practices is striking.
