History. Crop cultivation systems evolved under the influence of several factors: the social mode of production, natural conditions, and the development of agricultural techniques and agronomy. Their evolution has gone hand in hand with the intensification of crop cultivation in general. Four types of crop cultivation systems, from less intensive to more intensive, may be distinguished: primitive, extensive, transitional, and intensive.

Primitive crop cultivation systems are typical of early agriculture, which made use solely of natural soil fertility. Such systems included, in forested areas, the slash-and-burn and forest-clearing systems and, in steppe regions, the long-fallow and shifting systems.