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

Subsistence farming is a mode 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 crop grown, it generally requires between 1,000 and 40,000 m² (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. ... The Latin words hortus (garden plant) and cultura (culture) together form horticulture, classically defined as the culture or growing of garden plants. ... Soil is the material on the surface of a lithosphere subject to weathering, and especially the earthy portion of that material. ... Look up crop in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Subsistence farming, by definition, produces enough food to sustain the farmers through their normal daily activities, and often enough of a surplus to take to market or store for later. It is a harsh way of living, if one wishes to have large amounts modern conveniences. Because large surpluses are rare, subsistence farming does not promote the accumulation of capital. However, the personal freedom that it provides from the capitalist economy offers some families considerable value. Some also choose subsistence agriculture to work fewer hours and provide themselves with necessities to live a healthy, comfortable life outside of modern society. The following is a list of subsistence techniques: Hunting and Gathering, also known as Foraging freeganism involves gathering of discarded food in the context of an urban environment gleaning involves the gathering of food that traditional farmers have left behind in their fields Cultivation Horticulture - plant cultivation, based on the...

One form of subsistence farming is shifting cultivation, a practice common in the tropics during the last century. In this acricultural system, farmers typically abandon a given plot when soil fertility wanes and a considerable fallow period ensues. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Slash and burn. ...

Contributing factors

In the absence of technology, the area of land that a farmer can cultivate each season is limited by factors such as available tools and the quality of the soil. If this land will not produce a surplus, due to the fertility of the soil, climate conditions, tools and techniques, or available crop types, the farmer can do no more than subsist on it. In many tropical areas, particularly prior forests which have been slashed and burned, the nutrient quality is inherently low and offers scant yields. 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 north and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Shifting cultivation. ...

In the absence of a well developed commercialized agricultural sector, with monetary demands on the producer, such as taxes, any given agricultural producer has relatively little incentive to move beyond subsistence farming. Expending effort to produce surplusses generates very little benefit, so the extra effort is usually wasted. Unfortunately, under these conditions, years with poor harvests often result in food scarcety and famine. A tax (also known as a duty) is a financial charge or other levy imposed on an individual or a legal entity by a state or a functional equivalent of a state (e. ... A famine is a phenomenon in which a large percentage of the population of a region or country is so undernourished that death by starvation or other related diseases becomes increasingly common. ...

Not all farmers have access to as much land as they can cultivate. Socioeconomic conditions may prevent an expansion of farming plots. If inheritance traditions require that a plot be split among the owner's children upon his death, plot sizes can steadily decrease. Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, and obligations upon the death of an individual. ...

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. ... The World Food Programme (WFP) is an agency of the United Nations which distributes food commodities to support development projects, to long-term refugees and displaced persons and as emergency food assistance in situations of natural and man-made disasters. ... A famine is a phenomenon in which a large percentage of the population of a region or country is so undernourished that death by starvation or other related diseases becomes increasingly common. ...

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 South-East Asia. Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia. ... 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 which is difficult to implement. There are new types of irrigation equipment available which 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 (in agriculture) is the replacement or supplementation of rainfall with water from another source in order to grow crops. ... Farmland can have several meanings: See: Farm for a general discussion of farming Farmland, Indiana, a town in the United States Farmland (cooperative), an agricultural cooperative This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Water (from the Old English waeter; c. ...

Genetically modified crops (ex. golden rice) can have higher nutrient content or disease resistance than natural varieties. This technique 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. Alternatively, microloans can enable farmers to find non-agricultural occupations in their communities. It has been suggested that Genetic engineering be merged into this article or section. ... White rice and golden rice Golden rice is a variety of rice (Oryza sativa) produced through genetic modification to biosynthesize the precursors of beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A) in the edible parts of rice. ... Ernst Haeckel coined the term oekologie in 1866. ... Epidemiologic studies are generally categorized as descriptive, analytic (aiming to examine associations, commonly hypothesized causal relationships), and experimental (a term often equated with clinical or community trials of treatments and other interventions). ... // Microcredit is an integral part of the microfinance concept which also includes microenterprise training, microinsurance and other financial innovations aimed at serving the very poor. ... The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. ... Farm equipment is any kind of machinery used on a farm to help with farming. ... A draught animal is a (semi-)domesticated animal used for transport and haulage (the heavy labour of pulling carts, hauling timber and ploughing fields are examples). ...

Subsistence farming exists as of 2006 in Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Congo, Guinea, Kikuyu, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Mexico, Yugoslavia, Polynesia, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Vietnam and many other lesser developed countries. The Kĩkũyũ (otherwise spelled Gĩkũyũ) ethnic group is Kenyas most populous ethnic group. ... Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in all south Slavic languages, Југославија in Serbian and Macedonian Cyrillic) is a term used for three separate but successive political entities that existed during most of the 20th century on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe. ... Polynesia is generally defined as the islands within the triangle Polynesia (from Greek: πολύς many, νῆσος island) is a large grouping of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. ...

See also

• shifting cultivation