Subsistence agriculture

About: Subsistence agriculture is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 8069 publications have been published within this topic receiving 156876 citations. The topic is also known as: subsistence farming.

Seasonal Factors in Subsistence, Nutrition, and Child Growth in a Central Brazilian Indian Community

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the subsistence practices, diet, and the growth of young children in a community of recently sedentarized Xavante Indians of Central Brazil to ascertain some of the effects of transition from foraging to food production. For hunters and gatherers, all subsistence labor is essentially harvest labor. With dependence on agriculture, a new factor enters into the scheduling of time and labor. Agriculture requires that people spend time in planting and caring for crops that they will not eat for several months. There is little in the Xavante experience to support the hypothesis that the transition from subsistence based on wild food to agriculture would produce an increased and more reliable food supply. Fluctuation in food supplies increase rather than to stabilize as this group attempts to reconcile the conflicting demands on labor for the collection of wild foods and the production of cultivated foods. Populations whose primary dependence is on root crops, such as manioc, that can be stored in the ground and harvested year-round but are low in protein would be less subject to seasonal shortage of calories but would be under more pressure to continue to hunt and fish to obtain animal protein.

Household Organization and Intensive Agriculture: The Kofyar Case

Abstract: Among the Kofyar of Northern Nigeria the organization and composition of the household is ecologically adapted to certain features of the subsistence technology and the physical environment. While reductionist arguments of environmental determinism or diffuse functional interconnexion are not adequate, it is possible to demonstrate specific reciprocal influence. This paper considers the kinds of evidence available for empirically determining the connexion between a particular social pattern and the productive activities of a society, providing an example of the analysis Steward called ‘cultural ecology’ (1953: 30).

Livelihood change, farming, and managing flood risk in the Lerma Valley, Mexico

Abstract: In face of rising flood losses globally, the approach of “living with floods,” rather than relying on structural measures for flood control and prevention, is acquiring greater resonance in diverse socioeconomic contexts. In the Lerma Valley in the state of Mexico, rapid industrialization, population growth, and the declining value of agricultural products are driving livelihood and land use change, exposing increasing numbers of people to flooding. However, data collected in two case studies of farm communities affected by flooding in 2003 illustrate that the concept of flood as agricultural “hazard” has been relatively recently constructed through public intervention in river management and disaster compensation. While farming still represents subsistence value to rural households, increasingly rural communities are relying on non-farm income and alternative livelihood strategies. In this context, defining flooding in rural areas as a private hazard for which individuals are entitled to public protection may be counterproductive. A different approach, in which farmers’ long acceptance of periodic flooding is combined with valuing agricultural land for ecoservices, may enable a more sustainable future for the region’s population.