Slash and burn was a very important technique that the mayans used and it was the reason why the Maya were able to feed so many people.
So the maya developed in the rainforest so that's where they rose. The way the Maya were able to farm in the rainforest was slash and burn.
So the rainforest as you probably already know is an extremely fertile place because the forest canopy and everything falls from canopy like all the poop and all the leaves and they fall to the ground and the floor of the rainforest is some of the most fertile soil everywhere. However, you can't plant crops or at least a lot of them on the rainforest floor because there's not enough sunlight.
So, the solution for the Maya was to cut down the trees which is the slash part so they would find a big group of trees and cut them down. Then they would burn it all because it adds the fertilization process of the ground. So then they would end up with a burned field filled with fertile soil. Then, they would use this area to plant corn and corn is a pretty rapid crop if it's in the right environment so the food production was off the charts.
However, that field would be exhausted in like 3-4 years because you're growing so many crops and you're not getting all the rainforest stuff. So it would be dead in like 3-4 years and unrecoverable.
