In many developing countries, subsistence farming is a common way of life. Farmers will normally grow just enough to food to feed themselves and their families, occasionally selling or trading surplus produce at local markets. They will keep small numbers of animals, sometimes for their meat, but more often to work the land.
Subsistence farming, or subsistence agriculture, is a mode of agriculture in which a plot of land produces only enough food to feed the family or small community working it. All produce grown is intended for consumption purposes as opposed to market sale or trade. Historically and currently a difficult way of life, subsistence farming is considered by many a backward lifestyle that should be transformed into industrialized communities and commercial farming throughout the world in order to overcome problems of poverty and famine. The numerous obstacles that have prevented this to date suggest that a complex array of factors, not only technological but also economic, political, educational, and social, are involved. An alternative perspective, primarily from the feminist voice, maintains that the subsistence lifestyle holds the key to sustainability as human relationships and harmony with the environment have priority over material measures of wealth. Although the poverty suffered by many of those who have never developed beyond subsistence levels of production in farming is something that needs to be overcome, it does appear that the ideas inherent in much of subsistence farming—cooperation, local, ecologically appropriate—are positive attributes that must be preserved in our efforts to improve the lives of all people throughout the world.
Subsistence farming is a mode of agriculture in which a plot of land produces only enough food to feed those who work it—little or nothing is produced for sale or trade. Depending on climate, soil conditions, agricultural practices and the crops grown, it generally requires between 1,000 and 40,000 square meters (0.25 to 10 acres) per person.
A recognizably harsh way of living, subsistence farmers can experience a rare surplus of produce goods under conditions of good weather which may allow farmers to sell or trade such goods at market. Because such surpluses are rare, subsistence farming does not allow for consistent economic growth and development, the accumulation of capital, or the specialization of labor. Diets of subsistence communities are confined to little else than what is produced by community farmers. Subsistence crops are usually organic due to a lack of finances to buy or trade for industrial inputs such as fertilizer, pesticides or genetically modified seeds.
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