Showing papers on "Subsistence agriculture published in 1982"

Goal Programming via Multidimensional Scaling Applied to Senegalese Subsistence Farms

Abstract: A methodology is developed to estimate empirically the weights for a multiple-goal objective function of Senegalese subsistence farmers. The methodology includes a farmer-oriented goal preference survey and an application of a multidimensional scaling technique to the survey data. A comparison of model performance under the multiple-goal objective function with a profit-maximization objective function does not indicate that there are distinct advantages to using either function.

The division of labor by sex in agriculture: a Peruvian case study.

Abstract: Explores the relationship between womens participation in familial agricultural labor and the process of agrarian class formation among a group of Andean peasants in the province of Cajamarca Peru. The study area is characterized by a large independent sector of peasants most of whom have insufficient land to produce their subsistence requirements causing them to participate in local and regional labor markets. Several reasons why census data underestimate peasant womens participation in agricultural production are advanced. Survey data from the study area show that a minimum of 21% of the total number of agricultural labor days employed on peasant agricultural units were contributed by women. The data show that there is a significant difference in the agricultural division of labor by sex in different strata of the peasantry with women from near landless and smallholder households participating more and in more different tasks than women from middle and rich peasant families. The upper strata of the peasantry conform to Boserups observation that participation of women in the familial agricultural labor force is less where a sizable rural proletariat exists.

Economic aspects of agroforestry

Abstract: Agroforestry is analysed by means of economic concepts The paper is mainly theoretical, since there are little adequate data to test the conceptual framework Agroforestry needs not be limited to integration of agriculture and forestry on a plot, but may also include integration on a holding Design and evaluation of agroforestry systems require thorough knowledge of relationships between agriculture and forestry Complementary and supplementary relationships, mainly resulting from biological factors, were identified, which make agroforestry an efficient system of land use Agroforestry can be an appropriate technology in areas with fragile ecosystems and subsistence farming The objectives of participants in an agroforestry programme may not coincide with social objectives, and so do not lead to the socially optimum combination of agriculture and forestry For that social optimum institutional arrangements will often be required

Subsistence production and extended reproduction. A contribution to the discussion about modes of production

Abstract: The present paper deals with what is considered to be the basic contradiction within the capitalist mode of production: the separation of subsistence production from social production. In the following some theses concerning how this separation works for accumulation and the way it is reproduced together with capital are presented. The central argument is that the separation is fundamentally necessary for accumulation. Within our present capitalist world economy housewives on the one hand and peasants (both men and women) on the other are the main subsistence producers. In different concrete forms both reproduce labour power for capital but are not compensated by capital. The way in which these two groups are integrated into the capitalist mode of production is through their marginalization, i.e. they form the consolidated mass of the industrial reserve army. As such they are continuously reproduced together with the process of extended reproduction of capital. They are two basic forms of capitalist relat...

Management and determination of pesticide residues in South Africa

Abstract: South African agriculture is at an intermediate stage of development. It is not as intensive and highly mechanized as in the industrialized countries of North America or Europe but, on the other hand, it is far removed from the subsistence farming practiced in most of Africa. This intermediate stage of development is reflected in the application or use of pesticides1. Organic pesticides have been in use since their development in the mid-1940s,but the proportion of arable land and veld treated and the number of applications per season have never been on a par with western Europe or North America. This may be due to the unpredictable climate experienced by most areas of the country, the greater availability of cheap labor for weed control, or the strict administrative controls that were placed on the sale and use of pesticides in South Africa where a registration scheme was embarked upon in 1947. Although the State has on occasion had to treat large areas of veld for the control of brown locusts, it has not been common practice to spray pastures and forests. Mosquito control has been confined to malarial areas and tsetse fly-infested areas have only been sprayed when absolutely imperative. The lower intensity of pesticide usage in South Africa has thus prevented most of the serious environmental pollution problems encountered in many countries.

Agricultural origins in the Near East: A model for the 1980s

Abstract: The traditional model supposed that farming developed rapidly in the Near East during the eighth millennium be. It was preceded by the formation of sedentary settlements in some areas. Fresh evidence from the Levant suggests that in fact agriculture began during the second stage of the Epipalaeolithic (c. 10,000 to 8,500 be), contemporary with the first permanently occupied settlements. There are indications that the pattern of development was similar in Mesopotamia, the Zagros and Anatolia. Thus according to the new model agriculture began in the late Pleistocene, not the early Holocene, when the environment was different from the recent past. There were two further stages of development of the farming way of life after 8,000 be. In the first agriculture supplemented by hunting and gathering spread throughout the region. Then during the sixth millennium be farming and stock‐raising became the sole basis of subsistence everywhere.

the division of labor and processes of social change in Mount Hagen

Abstract: In Mount Hagen, in the western highlands province of Papua New Guinea, alterations in the use of gardens, coupled with the maintenance of certain ideas about work, the division of labor, and rights over crops, have resulted in conflict between wives and husbands. The chief new crop is coffee, which is sold for cash; and while women do much of the work to produce the coffee, control of the money derived therefrom is still claimed by men, who channel it into their own ceremonial exchanges. Further, since coffee trees take up land previously used for subsistence crops, people are nowadays constrained to spend cash partly on foodstuffs for themselves and their pig herds. Cash cropping has brought with it many problems, and conflict is played out in ideological as well as material terms. [Papua New Guinea, Mount Hagen, social change, cash cropping, male-female relations]

BODY, PSYCHE and SOCIETY: Conceptions of illness in Ommura, Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea

Abstract: Knowledge of illness dimensions of sickness in Papua New Guinea cultures is still very limited, although it has increased significantly over the past few years (Lewis 1975, Frankel 1980, Johannes 1980, Barth 1975 ch. 15. See also Glick 1967). My present aim is to convey some aspects of the cultural meaning and significance of illness among the Ommura, a dialect group of about 800 people living on the upper slopes of the Llamari River in the Dogara census division of the Eastern Highlands District. The people are shifting cultivators, whose main subsistence crop is sweet potato, with yams, sugarcane, and maize. They also breed pigs, and grow coffee as a cash crop. They are organized into dispersed patrilineal clans with strong emphasis on the maternal line. I carried out field research, in 1975-6, in the villages of Samura, Yonura and Mukouri.

Subsistence, Trade, and Development of the Coastal Maya

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses subsistence, trade, and development of the Coastal Maya. The correlation of commercial production with trade centers can be documented at other locations on the lowland coasts. Even the great trading center of Chauaca located near the rich north-coast salt beds diversified production into groves of trees bearing copal incense. In brief, there is reason to believe that Contact period Maya trading communities were involved in the gathering of local agricultural products for sale, as well as the local distribution and regional trans-shipment of exotic commodities. There is also reason to believe that trading centers in the more marginal agricultural areas generally attempted to avoid having to expend their precious capital resources on food, and thus intensified or regulated food production to maintain autonomy. In all cases, intensive labor investment in agricultural production had ultimately a pecuniary motive. In the case of at least one important Late Preclassic coastal trading community, Cerros, a complex water-management system relating to agricultural intensification has been found. The organization of this system suggests that the upgrading of food production in the community and/or the producing of commercial crops motivated its construction. This same organization refutes the alternative possibility that the community grew up around a locale inherently suitable for agricultural intensification. Moreover, the settlement-pattern evidence does not indicate that its construction was a response to population pressure at the local or areal levels.

On the political economy of risk: farmworkers, pesticides, and dollars.

Abstract: The rapid industrialization of world agriculture has been one of the most eventful social and economic transformations taking place in the second half of the 20th century. Today two agricultures coexist in most countries: capital-intensive agri-business and labor-intensive subsistence farming. In the U.S., the former exploits largely nonwhite immigrant labor and the latter female unpaid labor, surviving as a "second job.' The striking increase of production in industrial agriculture has been accompanied by uneven and irrational development and by a tragic upsurge of mechanical accidents and chemical hazards. Current pesticide use poses a threat to workers and their families, the general public, the environment, and future generations. Acute risks begin to be known largely through farmworkers' exposure, while chronic risks are often inferred from experimental studies but generally are disregarded. Because of industry's historic neglect of health and environmental hazards, regulation has evolved under pressure from workers and citizens. Regulation is at present the best tool available to shape technological development according to society's needs and goals. Its basic requirements are information, reorientation of public resources, and democratic control. A major obstacle to its implementation is the inequitable social distribution of risks and benefits, within and among nations. Language: en

The Production Responsibility System in Chinese Agriculture: Some Examples From Guangdong

Abstract: THE HISTORY OF China's rural economy since 1949 has been marked by dramatic shifts in policy. After the initial period of land reform, the basic strategy for rural development was to expand collective production. It was argued that in China as a whole, the historical pressure of population could lead only to fragmentation of the critical land resource. Development was possible only through an administrative system that brought together land, labour and capital and organized them according to principles that went beyond household subsistence and the private marketing of economic surplus. The decision to collectivize agriculture brought in its wake numerous problems which have persisted in development strategy. The goals of rural development have been to increase output, in order both to supply the non-agricultural sector with foodstuffs and raw materials and also to raise rural living standards by increasing commodities for rural subsistence and exchanging a growing economic surplus for commodities unavailable through peasant production. Chinese leaders have long recognized that the broad goal of raising rural output is rife with tensions and contradictions, many of which stem from the very character of the peasant social class. Soviet development strategy has been marked by failures which derive from an initial incorrect analysis of the characteristics of the Russian peasantry.' The Chinese Commu-

Prehistoric Agricultural Systems in El Salvador

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the prehistoric agricultural systems in El Salvador. The most notable characteristic of ethno-historic and ethnographic descriptions of traditional agriculture in El Salvador is its diversity. Diversity is manifested by the wide variety of seed crops, root crops, and tree crops that were cultivated and by the long list of wild species that were exploited. Hunting of numerous animal species, fishing, and shellfish collecting are known to have been important subsistence components until the past few decades. In the past few decades, most of the wild animals that were originally hunted and consumed have been eliminated from El Salvador. The diversity in species utilized in El Salvador almost matched the variety of specific subsistence technologies used there, with the range of farming techniques used in the Historic period being from very extensive to quite intensive. It is likely that such diversity in species and in technologies has a considerable antiquity in El Salvador.

Biotope gradient in a diversified New Guinea subsistence system

Abstract: The Wopkaimin are a population of hunter-horticulturalists who live near the Upper Fly River in Papua New Guinea. In this paper, ecosystem heterogeneity is related to diversity of strategies in the Wopkaimin subsistence system. Subsistence subsystems of shifting cultivation, silviculture, gathering, pig raising, hunting, fishing, and collecting are associated with 11 biotopes. Biotopes are useful descriptive categories for subsistence ecological research and they are recognized Wopkaimin emic categories, having cognitive and behavioral consequences. The relationship of the Wopkaimin population to other biota in the ecosystem is shown to be related to a very steep biotope gradient.

The Myth of Absolute Abundance: Economic Development as a Shift in Relative Scarcities

Abstract: . Scarcity lies at the heart of economic science. Scarcity and abundance are dialectical terms Rowing into each other by imperceptible degrees. They are always relative. While absolute abundance in terms of both internal and external factors is an unattainable dream, life would be extinguished long before absolute scarcity is reached. At any point in time, people can be placed between these two extremes. Such a position of relative scarcity can be either close to the subsistence level or to relative plenty at a high standard of living. Economists of a pessimistic breed fear that pressure of population on subsistence will lead to equilibrium at a subsistence level or even to eventual extinction unless the rate of population growth and resource use are checked. Optimists believe that technological advance will continue to provide an offset to diminishing returns and that human institutions will respond to pressures of scarcities in constructive ways. Some implications of these attitudes for economic development are analyzed within a framework of the theory of discontent.

Environment, Human Settlement, and Agriculture in the Puna de Jujuy, Argentina: A Case Study of Land-Use Change

Abstract: The Argentinian puna, situated at the extreme south of the Andean plateau (Figure 1), has the characteristics of a cold semi-desert, which barely support a subsistence economy. Nevertheless, this region has a relatively dense population, probably dating back to times before the European conquest. Pastoralism seems to have been the basic economy both before and after the conquest, although it has been sporadically complemented by agriculture. The arrival of the Spaniards changed not only the traditional values of the local culture but also the patterns of human settlements and the means of subsistence. After the conquest, the puna became an important pathway for communication between the Viceroyship of Peru and the Rio de la Plata. With the establishment of the Rio de la Plata as the centre of national organization in Argentina, the puna became increasingly peripheral to political and economic concerns. Lack of interest in occupying these lands by people from lower altitudes has favoured ethnic continuity and the survival of many features of the old cultural substratum. The objectives of this paper are: 1. to describe the characteristics of prehispanic and present-day settlements, within the framework of environmental conditions in the Guayatayoc Basin, and to interpret the differences found in the pattern of settlements, location, and some aspects of economy 2. to give suggestions concerning the improvement of agriculture and animal production in the Guayatayoc Basin and in the puna in general. This paper is based on data derived from the central region of the "Puna de Jujuy," which is known as the

domestic economy: land, labor, and wealth in a San Blas community

Abstract: This paper discusses household organization and subsistence agriculture in a Cuna community of the Comarca de San Blas, Panama. Sahlins's adaptations of models from Chayanov are commonly used to analyze the relationship between household demographic characteristics, land use, and the labor intensity of agriculture. Several technical difficulties arise in this analysis, however, and it fails explicitly to incorporate information on the social organization of the community. A multiple regression approach is offered that eliminates the technical difficulties, shows a way to incorporate additional information, and introduces a path model of the relationship between household composition, economic status, and farming strategy. [subsistence agriculture, Chayanov, San Blas Cuna, Panama, demographic change]

Energy and the oil-importing developing countries.

Abstract: Oil-importing developing countries will need more energy during the 19809s to sustain development and to support their subsistence sectors. Development plans must be revised to reflect the potentially disastrous effects of high-cost oil on foreign exchange reserves and on national indebtedness. Energy use efficiency must be increased, and wider use must be made of domestic sources of energy—of conventional fossil and hydro sources and of new and renewable options such as biomass and other solar resources. The international community can help by careful management of world financial flows and trade agreements, expansion of capital assistance, and provision of technical assistance. The importance of improving levels of scientific and technical expertise in the less-developed countries is a challege to the worldwide scientific and engineering community.