Shaping the land to create level shelves of earth to hold water and soil; requires extensive hand labor or expensive machinery, but it enables farmers to farm very steep hillsides
Dikes built along the contour of sloping farm land that hold runoff and sediment to reduce erosion
Technique used to plant crops on sloping land The sloping land is reworked to create a series of broad, nearly level terraces with short vertical drops from one to another that run along the contour of the land This technique helps to conserve water and reduce soil erosion
Dikes built along the contour of sloping farm land that hold runoff and sediment to reduce erosion Source: US EPA
Terracing is a sloping piece of land that has had flat areas like steps built on it, for example so that people can grow crops there
A series of levels on a hillside, one above the other; dikes built along the contour of sloping farm land that hold runoff and sediment to reduce erosion Hillside farming on terraces greatly reduces water erosion of soil
Shaping a slope with a series of steps The steps allow for planting and maintenance on level areas and reduce the potential for erosion across a steep slope