In short, fire-stick farming increases the productivity of the land. Similar techniques were used in many parts of the world in the late Paleolithic. Though not strictly a type of farming, they were a way of increasing the production of usable plants and animals in a given area of land. They count, in other words, as a form of intensification. Fire-stick farming gives us a preview of the bonanza of food, resources, and energy that would be released by farming.
