Disadvantages of burning the grassland:
Destroys the soil cover and the organic matter and this leads to soil erosion
Loss of Nitrogen and Sulphur from the soil
Planned burning needs the use of firebreaks to control the burning stretch, and a technique called back burning if necessary. Back burning is the setting of small fires along a firebreak and burning back to the main fire front. The on coming fire should then stop when it reaches the burned area as there is no more fuel to maintain it. Burning should be done either at the beginning or end of the dry season. The advantage of burning at the beginning of the dry season when the grass is not fully dried out, meant that the fire should not get too hot. After the fire, trees and grasses shoot again to provide a little grazing in the dry season. Burning at the end of the dry season, the grass is dried out and the fires get very hot and difficult to control. This fire can damage shrubs and really scorch the earth. Ideally, grassland should only be fired every other year but unplanned burning happens. Hunters in Nigeria use fire to flush out their prey, and shifting cultivators also burn grassland at their convenience. Lightening that accompanies the storms when the rainy season is approaching also cause fires.