Sedentary agriculture refers to farming that takes place in a single location by a settled farmer without rotating the fields. In contrast to shifting cultivation, the word was used to describe early agriculturalists in tropical Africa who cultivated the same plot of land indefinitely.

Agriculture as practiced in one place by a settled farmer in which fields are not rotated is called sedentary agriculture. The term was used for primitive agriculturists in tropical Africa who farmed the same piece of land indefinitely in contrast to shifting cultivation.

Sedentary farming is a method of agriculture in which the same land is farmed every year. This is in contrast to nomadic farming, in which new areas are farmed as the soil becomes less nutrient-rich from extensive planting, and shifting cultivation, which uses controlled forest fires to produce arable land.