Question

Explain the types of subsistence farming.​

Answer 1

Answer:

Types of subsistence farming are 1. Primitive or Simple Subsistence Farming 2. Intensive Subsistence Farming!

1. Primitive or Simple Subsistence Farming:

Primitive farming is the oldest form of agriculture and still prevalent in some areas of the world. From primitive gathering, some people have taken a step ‘upward’ on the economic ladder by learning the art of domesticating plants and their economy has moved into primitive cultivation.

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This type of farming is done on self-sufficient basis and farmers grow food only for themselves and their families. Some small surpluses may be either exchanged by barter or sold for cash.

The resultant economy is thus static with little chance for improvement, but there is a high degree of rural independence because farmers are not tied to landlords or to trading centres.

Location:

This form of agriculture is widely practised by many tribes of the tropics, especially in Africa, in tropical South and Central America, and in South-East Asia. It is better known as shifting cultivation (Figure 4.2).

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Shifting cultivation is practised in the tropics by many different peoples and thus has many different names, e.g., milpa in Central America and parts of Africa, conuco in Venezuela, roca in Brazil, masole in Zaiire, ladang in Malaysia, humah in Indonesia, caingin in the Phillippines, tauhgya in Burma, tamrai in Thailand, bewar or poda in India and chena in Sri Lanka.

Areas of primitive subsistence farming

Characteristics:

The primitive subsistence agriculture or shifting cultivation is characterised by the following features:

(i) Sites for the ladang are usually selected in the virgin forest by the experienced elders. Hill slopes are preferred because of better drainage. Many ladangs are located in the remote interiors, far from the main population centres.

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This is partly for historical reasons as most shifting cultivators have been forced into less favourable areas by the expansion of more advanced farmers into the lower and better lands. Their isolation hinders their progress and makes the spread of new ideas more difficult.

(ii) The forests are usually cleared by fire and the ashes add to the fertility of the soil. Trees that are not burnt are hacked out by the men or left to decay naturally. Shifting cultivation is thus also called ‘slash-and-burn agriculture’.

(iii) The cultivated patches are usually very small; about 0.5-1 hectare (1-3 acres) scattered in their distribution and separated from one another by dense forests or bush.

(iv) Cultivation is done with very primitive tools such as sticks and hoes, without the aid of machines or even drought animals. Much manual labour is needed in land clearance to produce food for a few people.

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Thus, despite the fact that little attention is given to the crops when they are once planted, no other form of farming is so wasteful of human energy and so unrewarding as shifting cultivation.

(v) Few crops are raised in the ladings. The main crops are starchy foods, e.g., tapioca, cassava or manioc, yams, maize or corn, millet, upland rice, beans and bananas. Crops are sown at calculated intervals, often between the other plants, so that the harvest can be staggered to provide food all the year round. Much the same types of crops are grown in all the farms.

(vi) Short periods of crop occupancy alternate with long periods of fallowing. When the yields can no longer support the community because of soil exhaustion or the invasion of weeds and shrubs, the fields are abandoned and fresh areas cleared. ‘Field rotation’ rather than ‘crop rotation’ is practised.

(vii) This form of ‘migratory agriculture’ still supports many of the aboriginal tribes of the tropical rain forest, despite the efforts made by the local govern­ments to resettle them. The exhaustion of soil nutrients, deterioration of the lightly constructed bamboo houses, and attack by insect-pests, diseases or wild animals are some of the major reasons that make migration a necessity.

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A more advanced form of subsistence farming is ‘sedentary subsistence agriculture’ in tropical lowlands, where the fallowed fields are frequently reused and the community stays permanently in one spot. Crop rotation is also practised in some places and greater attention is given to the land and the crops sown.

Methods of tillage are more intensive, though crude hand implements are often still used and there is a greater employment of manpower in the fields. This type of economy is capable of sustaining a relatively larger population on a permanent basis.

Many more animals are kept, including buffaloes, swine and horses, and animals are used for drought purposes on the farm as well as to supply milk or meat. Crops are sown in the cool season and grown throughout the rainy period to be harvested in the dry season.

Explanation:

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