Like most farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, this Cameroonian man cultivates at the subsistence level.

Subsistence agriculture (also know as self sufficiency) is a method of horticulture in which a plot of land produces only enough food to feed the family working it. Depending on climate, soil conditions, agricultural practices, and the crops grown, it generally requires between 1,000 and 40,000 m² (between 0.25 and 10 acres) per person. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (958x790, 1042 KB) A Bakweri farmer working his cocoyam field on the slopes of Mt. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (958x790, 1042 KB) A Bakweri farmer working his cocoyam field on the slopes of Mt. ... Autonomy is the condition of something that does not depend on anything else. ... The Latin words hortus (garden plant) and cultura (culture) together form horticulture, classically defined as the culture or growing of garden plants. ... Loess field in Germany Soil horizons are formed by combined biological, chemical and physical alterations. ...

Introduction

Subsistence agriculture, by definition, produces enough food to sustain the farmers through their normal daily activities. It is very often a harsh way of living, with little or no hope for improvement over time. Large surpluses are rare, and even then the farmers may not be able to sell their surplus crops because, as Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto has argued, they often do not have clear title to the land which they work and to the crops which they produce. This lack of ability to raise significant funds, which can be used to start new businesses and trigger industrialization, is one reason that subsistence agriculture still exists today. Subsistence means living in a permanently fragile equilibrium between alimentary needs and the means for satisfying them. ... Paul Samuelson, Nobel Prize in Economics winner. ... Hernando de Soto (born 1941 in Arequipa) is a Peruvian economist known for his work on the informal economy. ...

Mitigation tactics

Many techniques have been attempted (with varying degrees of success) to help subsistence farmers in producing surpluses so the community can begin the path to economic growth. Food aid can alleviate a short famine, but does nothing to solve the inherent problem of subsistence production, and thus is no longer considered a long-term solution. Accumulated GDP growth for various countries. ... // World Food Programme Hunger and undernutrition claim more lives than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined—25,000 people a day, one every four seconds. ... A famine is a social and economic crisis that is commonly accompanied by widespread malnutrition, starvation, epidemic and increased mortality. ...

Education about modern agricultural techniques has had some limited success, but not as much as was originally hoped. Many instructors discovered that their techniques depended on infrastructure, climate, or resources which are not available in the subsistence community. Another approach to education has been to provide the farmers with non-agricultural marketable skills. The implicit assumption is that the subsistence farmer will leave the community to seek employment in an area where greater resources are available. This technique has met with marginal success because it ignores the human desire to stay with community.

In recent years, some attention has been given to developing underutilized crops, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia. A world map showing the continent of Africa. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ...

Proper irrigation techniques can dramatically improve the output of farmland. Traditional irrigation methods can be extremely labor-intensive, wasteful of water, and may require community-wide infrastructure that is difficult to implement. There are new types of irrigation equipment available that are both inexpensive and water-efficient. Many subsistence farmers, however, remain unaware of the new technologies, are unable to afford them, or have difficulties marketing their crops after investing in irrigation equipment. High-altitude aerial view of irrigation in the Heart of the Sahara ( ) Irrigation is the replacement or supplementation of rainfall with water from another source in order to grow crops or plants. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Water is a tasteless, odourless substance that is essential to all known forms of life and is known as the universal solvent. ...

Genetically modified crops, such as golden rice, can have higher nutrient content or disease resistance than natural varieties. Using these crops has been highly successful in some parts of the world, though the long-term ecological and epidemiological effects of these crops are poorly understood. Microloans, loans of very small sums of money (often less than $25), can enable farmers to purchase equipment or draft animals that will help increase crop yield. Alternatively, microloans can enable farmers to find non-agricultural occupations in their communities. A tobacco plant which has been genetically engineered to express a gene taken from fireflies. ... White rice and golden rice Golden rice is a variety of rice (Oryza sativa) produced through genetic engineering to biosynthesize the precursors of beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A) in the edible parts of rice. ... Ernst Haeckel coined the term oekologie in 1866. ... Epidemiology is the scientific study of factors affecting the health and illness of populations, and serves as the foundation and logic of interventions made in the interest of public health and preventive medicine. ... // Microcredit is the extension of very small loans to the unemployed, to poor entrepreneurs and to others living in poverty who are not bankable. ... ISO 4217 Code USD User(s) the United States, the British Virgin Islands, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Panama, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the insular areas of the United States Inflation 3. ... Farm equipment is any kind of machinery used on a farm to help with farming. ... A working animal is an animal that doesnt live in the wild but is kept by humans, and often trained, to perform various tasks, regardless whether they are also used for consumption of meat and milk or for other produce such as leather etc. ...

Effects on the environment

Although subsistence agriculture is usually organic (often simply for lack of money to buy industrial inputs such as fertilizer, pesticides, and genetically modified seeds), it isn’t necessarily good for the environment. One form of subsistence agriculture is shifting cultivation, a practice common in the tropics. In this agricultural system, farmers typically abandon a given plot when soil fertility wanes and move on to more fertile land, often utilizing slash and burn techniques. A considerable fallow period ensues on the abandoned land. Organic cultivation of mixed vegetables in Capay, California. ... An example of Money. ... spreading manure, an organic fertilizer Fertilizers (British English, also fertilisers) are compounds given to plants to promote growth; they are usually applied either via the soil, for uptake by plant roots, or by foliar feeding, for uptake through leaves. ... A cropduster spreading pesticide. ... Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which a person uses a piece of land, only to abandon or alter the initial use a short time later. ... Assarting in Finland in 1892 Slash and burn (a specific practice that may be part of shifting cultivation or swidden-fallow agriculture) is an agricultural procedure widely used in forested areas. ...

Numerous tropical countries have acknowledged the adverse impacts of subsistence agriculture on biological resources; in many cases these agricultural practices, along with unlimited access rights to forests, have been the target of limitations through the countries' Biodiversity Action Plans. The tropics are the geographic region of the Earth centered on the equator and limited in latitude by the two tropics: the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere. ... Diademed Sifaka, an endangered primate of Madagascar Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) is a an internationally recognized programme addressing threatened species or habitats, which is designed to protect and restore biological systems. ...