Shifting cultivation is an agricultural land-use system in which an area of land is cultivated for a relatively short period and then left fallow while cultivation shifts to another plot. The alternation between cultivation and fallow is a defining characteristic of the system, although the duration of each phase varies with local environmental conditions, farming practices, and land availability ^[1]. In many traditional systems, land preparation involves clearing existing vegetation, sometimes using fire, followed by crop cultivation and the subsequent regeneration of natural or secondary vegetation during the fallow period ^[2]. During fallow, vegetation regrowth can contribute to changes in soil nutrients, biomass, and ecological conditions, while the effects of cultivation depend partly on the history of previous cropping cycles and the length and condition of fallow periods ^[3]. Shifting cultivation is not defined solely by the use of fire, subsistence production, or the movement of farming households; its distinguishing feature is the rotation of cultivated plots through periods of use and fallow ^[1][2]. It differs from continuous cultivation, in which the same land remains under regular production, and from permanent crop rotation, in which different crops are cultivated sequentially on land that remains in active agricultural use.