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.

Analysis and resolution of protected area-people conflicts in Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, India.

Abstract: Conflicts between local people and protected area managers are a common problem in developing countries, but in many cases there has been little attempt to comprehensively characterize the underlying problems. Resource uses, management practices, economy and people's perceptions of problems and likely solutions were analysed in two villages near and two villages away from the core zone of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in the Indian Himalaya. Agriculture, although practised on less than 1% of the area, was the primary occupation of local people. Six annual crops of a total of 22 and all four horticultural crops on private farms were damaged by wildlife, but Reserve management provided compensation only for livestock killing by wildlife and compensation amounted to only 4–10% of the total assessed monetary value of killed livestock. A variety of wild plant products were used locally but 27 were marketed by more than 50% of surveyed families; income from wild products was substantially lower than that from crops and livestock. A sociocultural change from a subsistence to a market economy, together with changes in traditional land/resource rights and institutions, has led to a number of changes in land-use and management practices. The livestock population has declined, agricultural area has remained the same and people have started cultivating medicinal species in the last 20 years. These changes seem complementary to the goal of conservation. However, changes such as abandonment of some traditional food crops and stress on cash crops lacking fodder value, requiring substantial manure inputs derived from forest litter and livestock excreta, and causing severe soil erosion, seem to counter the goal of environmental conservation. Some government-managed Reserve Forest sites were similar to the Community Forests in terms of species richness, basal area and soil physico-chemical properties. Two Reserve Forest sites showed basal areas of 160.5–191.5 m2/ha, exceeding the highest values reported so far from the region. The formal institutional framework of resource management seems to be not as effective as the traditional informal system. The Reserve Management Plan lays more emphasis on legal protection than on the sustainable livelihood of local communities and has led to conflicts between local people and reserve managers. Plantation of fodder and medicinal species in degraded forest lands, suppression of economic exploitation of local people in the market, enhancement of local knowledge of the economic potential of biodiversity, incentives for cultivation of crops with comparative advantages and lesser risks of damage by wildlife, and rejuvenation of the traditional involvement of the whole village community in decison-making, could be the options for resolving conflicts between people and protected areas in this case.

The Economics of Subsistence Agriculture

Abstract: The economics of subsistence agriculture , The economics of subsistence agriculture , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی کشاورزی

DIVERSIFICATION ECONOMIES AND SPECIALISATION EFFICIENCIES IN A MIXED FOOD AND COFFEE SMALLHOLDER FARMING SYSTEM IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA / доклад на 25 конференции IAAE, Reshaping Agriculture’s Contribution to Society, International Convention Centre, Durban, South Africa, 16-23 August 2003

Abstract: Smallholder farming systems in Papua New Guinea are characterised by an integrated set of cash cropping and subsistence food cropping activities. In the Highlands provinces, the subsistence food crop sub-system is dominated by sweet potato production. Coffee dominates the cash cropping sub-system, but a limited number of food crops are also grown for cash sale. The dynamics between sub-systems can influence the scope for complementarity between, and technical efficiency of, their operations, especially in light of the seasonality of demand for household labour and management inputs within the farming system. A crucial element of these dynamic processes is diversification into commercial agricultural production, which can influence factor productivity and the efficiency of crop production where smallholders maintain a strong production base in subsistence foods. Data are used on coffee and food crop production for 18 households in the Benabena district of Eastern Highlands Province to derive technical efficiency indices for each household over two years. A stochastic input distance function approach is used to establish whether diversification economies exist and whether specialisation in coffee, subsistence food or cash food production significantly influences technical efficiency on the sampled smallholdings. Diversification economies are weakly evident between subsistence food production and both coffee and cash food production, but diseconomies of diversification are discerned between coffee and cash food production. A number of factors are tested for their effects on technical efficiency. Significant technical efficiency gains are made from diversification among broad cropping activities.

Recent Land Use and Livelihood Transitions in Northern Laos

Abstract: Landscapes in the mountainous north of Lao People's Democratic Republic (hereafter Lao PDR or Laos) are undergoing rapid transformation as road access is being improved and the area is integrated into the regional economies of Southeast Asia, particularly China. Rural livelihoods in the upland areas, long based on subsistence agricultural production, are changing as more households engage in the market economy. This study assesses land use changes from 1993 to 2000, as well as agricultural production in 4 northern provinces of Laos: Luang Prabang, Oudomxay, Bokeo, and Luang Namtha. The spatial data available for this region are limited, but several trends are apparent from 1993: the area of traditional upland agriculture and swidden farming (ie shifting agriculture) has decreased, while permanent intensive agriculture has increased. There is some evidence that forest cover has increased since 1997, probably as a result of the succession of abandoned swidden areas to secondary forest, but the qual...