This study is wholly devoted to an examination of this one element of tropical agriculture in South Eastern Asia and in a part of the Island world of the South West Pacific. The present analysis attempts to bring together the work of many scholars in many disciplines using as a background and personal observations of author on shifting cultivation in most parts of the rural scene in Southern and Eastern Asia and the Western sector of the Island realm. The author's chief aim is to present the common features of the cropping system in an orderly and comparative manner in an effort to distinguish the critical characteristics of this particular segment of tropical agriculture.
