A solution that is often suggested is argoforestry. This involves planting diverse shrubs and trees along with crops. The hope is that this system would allow for greater biodiversity, biomass, and carbons stocks while still allowing for agriculture. Though this has less biomass than a primary forest, it is still better than degraded grasslands or pastures (Kotto-Same et. al., 1997).
Because population pressure is such a difficult factor to remove, solutions for cleared land are more often aimed at improving already cleared land from an economic, agricultural, and environmental perspective. Kato, Kato, Denich, and Vlek (1999) suggest that the use of fertilizer could have very positive effects on agriculture on cleared land. The authors believe that fertilizer and inputs of organic matter could be used as an alternative to fire for adding nutrients to soil to allow for agriculture. They tested on rice, cowpea and cassava plants. Shortening the fallow period form 10 to 4 years in traditional slash and burn agriculture caused a significant drop in productivity of the soil until agriculture was unsustainable. This was not the case when using a fire-free alternative like judicious inputs of fertilizer. Fire-free fields did not show a drop in productivity in the second cropping, whereas burned fields did, regardless of fallow length. Using fertilizer and organic matter instead of fire can also make up for nutrient degradation caused by agricultural intensity. Thus, fertilizer would allow for more productivity on cleared lands by shortening fallows, maintaining soil nutrients through crop cycles, and by allowing for increased agricultural intensity (Kato et. al., 1999).
