Subsistence agriculture

Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families. In subsistence agriculture, farm output is targeted to survival and is mostly for local requirements with little or no surplus. Planting decisions are made principally with an eye toward what the family will need during the coming year, and secondarily toward market prices. Tony Waters writes: "Subsistence peasants are people who grow what they eat, build their own houses, and live without regularly making purchases in the marketplace."

Despite the primacy of self-sufficiency in subsistence farming, today most subsistence farmers also participate in trade to some degree, though usually it is for goods that are not necessary for survival, and may include sugar, iron roofing sheets, bicycles, used clothing, and so forth. Most subsistence farmers today reside in developing countries. 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.

Subsistence agriculture has several characteristics which are, it requires small capital/finance, mixed cropping is mostly practiced, there is limited use of agrochemicals e.g. pesticides and fertilizer, unimproved varieties of crops and animals are used, there is little or no surplus for sale, it involves the use of crude/traditional tools such as hoes, machetes/cutlasses, it involves mainly the production of food crops, it is done on small scattered land, it uses family/unskilled labour, and yield is low