What is shift cultivation?

Answer 1

Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned. This system often involves clearing of a piece of land followed by several years of wood harvesting or farming, until the soil loses fertility. Once the land becomes inadequate for crop production, it is left to be reclaimed by natural vegetation, or sometimes converted to a different long-term cyclical farming practice.
they work by using the slash and burn cycle this means they take a part of a forest slash the trees down and burn it to get more minerals when the make it into a patch. And after a few years they move on after the crop drops and do the same thing again!

Answer 2

Shifting Cultivation is a method of farming. The people clear a patch of trees and use the land for farming, then once all the goodness has gone from the soil they abandon the clearing and clear another area of the forest. This repeatedly happens. After a number of years the goodness returns to the soil and they come back and use it again. It is a sustainable method of farming.