Milpa, a form of shifting cultivation, is practised in which region?

The correct answer is A, Mexico and Central America. Milpa is the local name for the slash and burn farming of Mexico, Guatemala and the neighbouring countries, in which a forest patch is cleared and burnt, cropped with maize, beans and squash for a few seasons and then left to recover. In Venezuela the same practice is called conuco and in Brazil roca.

Option B, Malaysia and Indonesia, call it ladang, with humah used in Java. Option C, Sri Lanka, calls it chena. Option D, Myanmar, calls it taungya, while Vietnam has ray, Thailand tamrai, the Congo masole and north-eastern India jhum. These names are asked exactly in this matching form, so each one should be learnt with its country. A short way to remember is that the American names come first, milpa, conuco and roca, then the South East Asian ones, ladang, humah, taungya, ray and tamrai, and finally chena in Sri Lanka and jhum in India.