subsistence farming
Growing your food
Subsistence farming is agriculture where farmers grow food primarily to feed themselves and their families rather than to sell.
Little or no surplus reaches the market.
The term often describes small-scale farming in developing regions, contrasted with commercial agriculture: Three generations lived off subsistence farming before the drought forced them to the city.
Independence from outside aid
- food securityGuaranteed adequate nutrition access
- hand-to-mouthConsuming resources immediately
- sustenanceMeans of living
- livelihoodMeans of earning income
scarcity · necessities · foraging · hunting · gathering · smallholding · peasant · sharecropper
Self-reliant land-based lifestyle
- homesteadFamily farm and dwelling
- smallholdingSmall cultivated land parcel
- villageSmall rural community
- ruralOf the countryside
family farm · agrarian · pastoral · self-reliance · barter · off-grid · simple living · back-to-basics
Alternating field plantings yearly
- shifting cultivationMigratory crop-growing practice
- slash-and-burnPrimitive clearing method
- intercroppingSimultaneous multi-crop cultivation
- agroforestryTrees integrated with farming
polyculture · terracing · fallow · irrigation · composting · manure · tillage · seedlings
self-sufficiency
Independence from outside aid
- food securityGuaranteed adequate nutrition access
- hand-to-mouthConsuming resources immediately
- sustenanceMeans of living
livelihood · scarcity · necessities · foraging · hunting · gathering · smallholding · peasant · sharecropper · landless
homesteading
Self-reliant land-based lifestyle
- homesteadFamily farm and dwelling
- smallholdingSmall cultivated land parcel
- villageSmall rural community
family farm · rural · agrarian · pastoral · self-reliance · barter · off-grid · simple living · back-to-basics · low-tech
crop rotation
Alternating field plantings yearly
- shifting cultivationMigratory crop-growing practice
- slash-and-burnPrimitive clearing method
- intercroppingSimultaneous multi-crop cultivation
agroforestry · polyculture · terracing · fallow · irrigation · composting · manure · tillage · seedlings · transplanting
staple crops
Agricultural dietary mainstays
cassava · yams · rice · beans · lentils · groundnuts · plantain · taro · squash · heirloom seeds
hoe
Weeding and tilling implement
machete · hand tools · mattock · spade · rake · seed drill · thresher · mortar · pestle · granary
- agriculturefarms, crops, farm, crop yields, cattle ranching
- crop farmingharvesting, planting, tractors, fertilizing, fertilizer
- farming typesranching, livestock raising, cattle ranching, crop rotation, aquaculture
- frontierfrontier, pioneer, pioneers, settlers, settler
- frontier lifehomesteaders, homesteading, shepherd, pioneer women, pioneer families
- Old Farmingplowing, harvesting, sowing, threshing, winnowing
subsistence farmingcommercial agriculture
Profit-driven large-scale farming
commercial farming · agribusiness · industrial agriculture · factory farming · plantation agriculture
subsistence farmingindustrial agriculture
Large-scale mechanized farming
mechanized farming · factory farming · scientific farming · intensive agriculture · vertical farming
farming, farmer, existence, existing, farmland, farmed, farmers, farmyard, existent