Subsistence Agriculture - Wikipedia

Subsistence
agriculture
Subsistence agriculture occurs when

farmers grow food crops to meet the
needs of themselves and their families
on smallholdings.[1] Subsistence
agriculturalists target farm output for
survival and for mostly local
requirements, with little or no surplus.
Planting decisions occur principally with
an eye toward what the family will need
during the coming year, and only
secondarily toward market prices.[1] Tony
Waters[2] writes: "Subsistence peasants
are people who grow what they eat, build
their own houses, and live without
regularly making purchases in the
marketplace.[3][1]"
A Bakweri farmer working on his taro field on the

slopes of Mount Cameroon (2005)
Subsistence farmers selling their produce
Agriculture in Vietnam
Despite the primacy of self-sufficiency in

subsistence farming, today most
subsistence farmers also participate in
trade to some degree, though usually for
goods that are not necessary for survival,
which may include sugar, iron roofing-
sheets, bicycles, used clothing, and so
forth. Most subsistence farmers today
operate in developing countries.[4]
Although their amount of trade as
measured in cash is less than that of
consumers in countries with modern
complex markets, many have important
trade contacts and trade items that they
can produce because of their special
skills or special access to resources
valued in the marketplace.[4]
Subsistence agriculture generally

features: small capital/finance
requirements, mixed cropping, limited
use of agrochemicals (e.g. pesticides
and fertilizer), unimproved varieties of
crops and animals, little or no surplus
yield for sale, use of crude/traditional
tools (e.g. hoes, machetes, and
cutlasses), mainly the production of food
crops, performed on small scattered
plots of land, reliance on unskilled labour
(often family members), and (generally)
low yields.
History
Subsistence agriculture was the
dominant mode of production in the
world until recently, when market-based
capitalism became widespread.[5]
Subsistence agriculture had largely

disappeared in Europe by the beginning
of World War I, and in North America with
the movement of sharecroppers and
tenant farmers out of the American
South and Midwest during the 1930s and
1940s.[2] In Central and Eastern Europe
subsistence and semi-subsistence
agriculture reappeared within the
transition economy since about 1990.[6]
Contemporary practices
Subsistence farming continues today in
large parts of rural Africa,[7] and parts of
Asia and Latin America. In 2015, about 2
billion people (slightly more than 25% of
the world's population) in 500 million
households living in rural areas of
developing nations survive as
"smallholder" farmers, working less than
2 hectares (5 acres) of land.[8]
Types of subsistence
farming
Shifting agriculture …
In this type of agriculture, a patch of

forest land is cleared by a combination of
felling (chopping down) and burning, and
crops are grown. After 2–3 years the
fertility of the soil begins to decline, the
land is abandoned and the farmer moves
to clear a fresh piece of land elsewhere
in the forest as the process continues.[9]
While the land is left fallow the forest
regrows in the cleared area and soil
fertility and biomass is restored. After a
decade or more, the farmer may return to
the first piece of land. This form of
agriculture is sustainable at low
population densities, but higher
population loads require more frequent
clearing which prevents soil fertility from
recovering, opens up more of the forest
canopy, and encourages scrub at the
expense of large trees, eventually
resulting in deforestation and land
erosion.[10] Shifting cultivation is called
dredd in India, ladang in Indonesia, milpa
in Central America and Mexico and
jhumming in North East India.
Primitive farming …
While this ”slash-and-burn” technique
may describe the method for opening
new land, commonly the farmers in
question have in existence at the same
time smaller fields, sometimes merely
gardens, near the homestead there they
practice intensive ”non-shifting"
techniques until shortage of fields where
they can employ "slash and burn" to clear
land and (by the burning) provide
fertilizer (ash). Such gardens near the
homestead often regularly receive
household refuse, and the manure of any
household, chickens or goats are initially
thrown into compost piles just to get
them out of the way. However, such
farmers often recognize the value of
such compost and apply it regularly to
their smaller fields. They also may
irrigate part of such fields if they are near
a source of water.
In some areas of tropical Africa, at least,

such smaller fields may be ones in which
crops are grown on raised beds. Thus
farmers practicing ”slash and burn”
agriculture are often much more
sophisticated agriculturalists than the
term "slash and burn" subsistence
farmers suggests.
Nomadic herding …
In this type of farming people migrate
along with their animals from one place
to another in search of fodder for their
animals. Generally they rear cattle, sheep,
goats, camels and/or yaks for milk, skin,
meat and wool.[11] This way of life is
common in parts of central and western
Asia, India, east and southwest Africa
and northern Eurasia. Examples are the
nomadic Bhotiyas and Gujjars of the
Himalayas. They carry their belongings,
such as tents, etc., on the backs of
donkeys, horses, and camels.[11] In
mountainous regions, like Tibet and the
Andes, yak and llama are reared.
Reindeer are the livestock in arctic and
sub-arctic areas. Sheep, goats, and
camels are common animals, and cattle
and horses are also important.[11][12]
Intensive subsistence farming …
In intensive subsistence agriculture, the

farmer cultivates a small plot of land
using simple tools and more labour.[13]
Climate with large number of days with
sunshine and fertile soils, permits
growing of more than one crop annually
on the same plot. Farmers use their
small land holdings to produce enough
for their local consumption, while
remaining produce is used for exchange
against other goods. It results in much
more food being produced per acre
compared to other subsistence patterns.
In the most intensive situation, farmers
may even create terraces along steep
hillsides to cultivate rice paddies. Such
fields are found in densely populated
parts of Asia, such as in the Philippines.
They may also intensify by using manure,
artificial irrigation and animal waste as
fertilizer. Intensive subsistence farming
is prevalent in the thickly populated areas
of the monsoon regions of south,
southwest, and southeast Asia.[13]
Poverty alleviation
Subsistence agriculture can be used as a
poverty alleviation strategy, specifically
as a safety net for food-price shocks and
for food security. Poor countries are
limited in fiscal and institutional
resources that would allow them to
contain rises in domestic prices as well
as to manage social assistance
programs, which is often because they
are using policy tools that are intended
for middle- and high-income countries.[14]
Low-income countries tend to have
populations in which 80% of poor are in
rural areas and more than 90% of rural
households have access to land, yet a
majority of these rural poor have
insufficient access to food.[14]
Subsistence agriculture can be used in
low-income countries as a part of policy
responses to a food crisis in the short
and medium term, and provide a safety
net for the poor in these countries.[14]
See also
Back-to-the-land movement
Cash crop
Commercial agriculture
Extensive agriculture
Hoe-farming
Industrial agriculture
Opium replacement
Subsistence economy
Subsistence fishing
References
1. Bisht, I. S.; Pandravada, S. R.; Rana,
J. C.; Malik, S. K.; Singh, Archna;
Singh, P. B.; Ahmed, Firoz; Bansal, K.
C. (2014-09-14). "Subsistence
Farming, Agrobiodiversity, and
Sustainable Agriculture: A Case
Study". Agroecology and Sustainable
Food Systems. 38 (8): 890–912.
doi:10.1080/21683565.2014.90127
3 . ISSN 2168-3565 .
S2CID 154197444 .
2. Tony Waters. The Persistence of
Subsistence Agriculture: life beneath
the level of the marketplace.
Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
2007.
3. Waters, Tony (2008). The
persistence of subsistence
agriculture : life beneath the level of
the marketplace. Lexington Books.
ISBN 978-0-7391-5876-0.
OCLC 839303290 .
4. Miracle, Marvin P. (1968).
"Subsistence Agriculture: Analytical
Problems and Alternative Concepts".
American Journal of Agricultural
Economics. 50 (2): 292–310.
doi:10.2307/1237543 .
5. George Reisman. "Capitalism"
(1990), p.16
6. Steffen Abele and Klaus Frohberg
(Eds.). "Subsistence Agriculture in
Central and Eastern Europe: How to
Break the Vicious Circle?" Studies on
the Agricultural and Food Sector in
Central and Eastern Europe. IAMO,
2003. Archived 2011-07-19 at the
Wayback Machine
7. Goran Hyden. Beyond Ujamaa in
Tanzania: Underdevelopment and an
Uncaptured Peasantry. Berkeley:
University of California Press. 1980.
8. Rapsomanikis, George (2015). "The
economic lives of smallholder
farmers" (PDF). Food and
Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations. p. 9. Archived (PDF)
from the original on 2016-05-04.
Retrieved 2018-01-11. "About two-
thirds of the developing world’s 3
billion rural people live in about 475
million small farm households,
working on land plots smaller than 2
hectares."
9. "Community Forestry: Forestry Note
8" . www.fao.org. Retrieved
2020-05-30.
10. "Agriculture Ecosystems &
Environment (AGR ECOSYST
ENVIRON)". Soil Erosion from
Shifting Cultivation and Other
Smallholder Land Use in Sarawak,
Malaysia. 4 (42).
11. Miggelbrink, Judith. (2016).
Nomadic and indigenous spaces :
productions and cognitions.
Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-59843-7.
OCLC 953047010 . Cite error: The
named reference ":1" was defined
multiple times with different content
(see the help page).
12. Miggelbrink, Judith, editor. Habeck,
Joachim Otto, editor. Mazzullo,
Nuccio, editor. Koch, Peter, editor.
(15 November 2016). Nomadic and
indigenous spaces : productions and
cognitions. ISBN 978-1-138-26721-3.
OCLC 1010537015 .
13. Vaughn, Sharon; Wanzek, Jeanne
(May 2014). "Intensive Interventions
in Reading for Students with Reading
Disabilities: Meaningful Impacts" .
Learning Disabilities Research &
Practice. 29 (2): 46–53.
doi:10.1111/ldrp.12031 . ISSN 0938-
8982 . PMC 4043370 .
PMID 24910504 .
14. de Janvry, Alain; Sadoulet, Elisabeth
(2011-06-01). "Subsistence farming
as a safety net for food-price
shocks". Development in Practice.
21 (4–5): 472–480.
doi:10.1080/09614524.2011.56129
2 . ISSN 0961-4524 .
S2CID 13891983 .
Further reading
Charles Sellers (1991). The Market
Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815–
1846. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Sir Albert Howard (1943). An
Agricultural Testament . Oxford
University Press.
Tony Waters (2010). "Farmer Power:
The continuing confrontation between
subsistence farmers and development
bureaucrats "/
Marvin P Miracle (May 1968).
"Subsistence Agriculture: Analytical
Problems and Alternative Concepts“,
American Journal of Agricultural
Economics, pp. 292–310.
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Subsistence

Subsistence agriculture occurs when

A Bakweri farmer working on his taro ﬁeld on the

Despite the primacy of self-sufﬁciency in

Subsistence agriculture generally

Subsistence agriculture had largely

In this type of agriculture, a patch of

In some areas of tropical Africa, at least,

Intensive subsistence farming …

In intensive subsistence agriculture, the

Last edited 22 hours ago by ClueBot NG

Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0 unless

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