làm rẫy
Definition
- Verb:
- To practice slash-and-burn agriculture: The primary meaning of "làm rẫy" is to engage in a traditional farming method where vegetation on a hillside or upland field is cut down, burned, and then crops are planted in the cleared and fertilized ash.
Usage Examples
- Verb:
- Người dân tộc thiểu số thường làm rẫy trên các sườn đồi. (Ethnic minority people often practice slash-and-burn agriculture on the hillsides.)
- Làm rẫy là một phương thức canh tác lâu đời nhưng có thể gây ảnh hưởng đến rừng. (Slash-and-burn farming is an ancient cultivation method but can impact forests.)
Advanced Usage
- "nương rẫy": a collective term for upland fields created by slash-and-burn agriculture.
- Họ sống chủ yếu dựa vào các sản phẩm từ nương rẫy. (They live mainly on products from their slash-and-burn fields.)
Variants and Related Words
- Làm nương (v): a synonym, also meaning to practice slash-and-burn farming on upland fields ("nương").
- Phát rẫy (v): the specific action of clearing the land by cutting down vegetation before burning.
- Đốt rẫy (v): the specific action of burning the cleared vegetation.
Synonyms
- To practice swidden agriculture: (a more formal, anthropological term for slash-and-burn farming).
- To practice shifting cultivation: (refers to the broader system where fields are abandoned after a few seasons).
Related Concepts
- Canh tác du canh: shifting cultivation, the agricultural system of which "làm rẫy" is a key part.
- Rẫy (n): the specific field or plot of land cleared and cultivated using the slash-and-burn method.