Subsistence agriculture is a form of farming where food production is enough to feed the whole family and those who have worked in it. This agriculture focuses on survival and self-consumption. The techniques used by farmers are a bit rudimentary as they usually use their own hands, help with animals, and don't use many tools.
There are different types of subsistence agriculture, some of them are:
Itinerant agriculture by cremation: in this type of agriculture, the land where it is going to be cultivated originates from the felling and burning of trees, where the ashes are used as compost, later it is planted again. The farmers take advantage of these fields for a few years, after the land is exhausted, they go elsewhere and carry out the same procedure. And so they go on until they return to the starting point. This kind of agriculture is frequently carried out in the most deprived equatorial regions such as the Amazon basin and the Gulf of Guinea.
Extensive rainfed agriculture: consists of fertilizing the land with compost of animal origin, in this way agricultural activities can be related to livestock, allowing continuous use of the soil. It is usually applied in dry areas of Africa.
Irrigated rice agriculture: this is done in areas of abundant rainfall, fertile lands and warm winters. Rice production is favorable since it is a plant that does not weaken or ruin the land. These crops are widely grown in Monsoon Asia, as in this region it usually rains in abundance during the middle of the year, allowing farmers to harvest rice twice a year. This type of agriculture is generally very intensive since each piece of land is used to obtain much more production.
In subsistence agriculture, in addition to rice cultivation, maize, cassava and millet are also sown. The tools used by farmers are rudimentary (rakes, manual plow, sickle, axes, etc.)
One of the advantages of this agriculture is that people can grow their own food and thus support their family.
