Subsistence agriculture

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Subsistence agriculture

Subsistence agriculture is self-sufficient

Self-sufficiency

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Subsistence agriculture is self-sufficient

Self-sufficiency

Self-sufficiency refers to the state of not requiring any outside aid, support, or interaction, for survival; it is therefore a type of personal or collective Wiktionary:autonomy....
farming in which farmers grow only enough food to feed their family and pay taxes. The typical subsistence farm has a range of crops and animals needed by the family to eat during the year. Planting decisions are made with an eye toward what the family will need during the coming year, rather than market prices. Tony Waters (2007:2) writes: "Subsistence peasants are people who grow what they eat, build their own houses, and live without regularly making purchases in the marketplace."

Subsistence grain-growing agriculture (predominantly wheat

Wheat

Wheat , is a worldwide cultivated Poaceae from the Levant region of the Middle East. Globally, after maize, wheat is the second most-produced food among the cereal just above rice....
and barley

Barley

Barley is an annual plant cereal grain derived from the grass Hordeum vulgare. It serves as a major animal feed crop, with smaller amounts used for malting and in health food, as well as the making of alcoholic beverages beer and whisky....
) first emerged during the Neolithic Revolution

Neolithic Revolution

The Neolithic Revolution was the first agricultural revolution—the transition from hunter-gatherer communities and bands, to agriculture and settlement ....
when humans began to settle in the Nile

Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the List of rivers by length in the world.The Nile has two major tributary, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and silt, but the former being the longer of the two....
, Euphrates

Euphrates

The Euphrates is the western of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia which flows from Anatolia....
, and Indus River

Indus River

File:Indian subcontinent CIA.pngThe Indus River is the longest river in Pakistan and the twenty-first largest river in the world, in terms of annual flow, on the Indian Subcontinent....
Valleys. It was the dominant mode of production in the world until recently, when market-based capitalism became widespread. Subsistence horticulture

Horticulture

'Horticulture' is the industry and science of plant cultivation. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, Crop , plant breeding and genetic engineering, plant biochemistry, and plant physiology....
may have developed earlier in South East Asia and Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands ....
.

Subsistence farming continues today in large parts of up-country Africa (Hyden 1981), and other countries of Asia and Latin America. Subsistence agriculture had by and large disappeared in Europe by the beginning of World War I

World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
, and in North America with the movement of sharecroppers and tenant farmers out of the American South and Midwest during the 1930s and 1940s (Waters 2007:127-129).

Effects on the environment

Subsistence farming typically uses few fertilizers and no machines. Instead the farmers may use draft animals

Working animal

A working animal is an animal that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks. They may be close members of the family, such as guide dogs, or domestications such as logging elephants....
which can be fed and raised on the farm. Subsistence farmers often rely on crop rotation

Crop rotation

Manure

Manure is organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and Nutrient#Nutrients and the environment, such as nitrogen that is trapped by bacterium in the soil....
, and compost

Compost

Compost , sometimes known as brown manure, is the end result of controlled aerobic decomposition of organic matter known as composting. It is used in landscaping, horticulture and agriculture as a soil conditioner and fertilizer to add vital humus or humic acids....
to restore the nutrients rather than purchasing expensive synthetic fertilizers. This agriculture can limit the amount of growth in a season.

In areas which are sparsely populated, subsistence agriculture can be sustainable for a long time. In more densely populated areas, subsistence agriculture may deplete the soil of nutrients, and damage the environment. However the traditional agriculture of East Asia, for example the small-holdings of China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, has been described as sustainable, using extensive methods of cultivation and despite high population pressure.

One form of subsistence agriculture is shifting cultivation

Shifting cultivation

For methods, see slash and burnShifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned....
, or swidden, a practice common with rain fed agricultural systems. Farmers typically abandon a given plot when soil fertility wanes and move on to more fertile land, often utilizing slash and burn

Slash and burn

Slash and burn consists of cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields for agriculture or pasture for livestock, or for a variety of other purposes....
techniques. A considerable fallow

Crop rotation

Crop rotation or Crop sequencing is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of Crop in the same area in sequential seasons for various benefits such as to avoid the build up of pathogens and pests that often occurs when one species is continuously cropped....
period ensues on the abandoned land. It takes up the least amount of land among the four types of cultivation, but it only provides enough food for the local population.

Subsistence agriculture

Effects on the environment

See also