1. World-wide most farmers are subsistence-growing just enough to feed their families.
They find building material and fuel in the natural environment-no cash economy
Small fields-intensive farming on land they often don’t own.
Methods and tools used are generally very low tech.
Found in South & Central America, Africa, South Asia, and South East Asia
Subsistence Farming
Iranian farmer harrowing a field with mules

2. On the Greek island of Crete, a peasant plows a field with a donkey

3. Various kinds of maize
Oxen pull a plow in Portugal

4. Shifting Agriculture-Slash & Burn, Patch or Milpa
Tropical areas-red soil is heavily leached.
Plot of land is cleared by burning-ash replenishes soil.
A type of crop rotation-tubers in warm tropics, grains in humid subtropics, fruit in cooler regions.
Not nomadic-central village with parcels of land worked in succession
Conserves forests & soil, requires organization
Shifting Cultivation is usually practiced in tropical areas with poor soils-soil fertility is maintained by rotating fields-note burned stumps with corn and beans interplanted. (land cleared is called Swidden)
Requires less intense farming or work-but supports a lower population density than traditional farming.
To outsiders Slash and Burn appears to be destructive, wasteful and disorganized-
there are no neat rows of monocrops-no carefully plowed soil-
Instead there are a variety of crops grown next to each other in what appears to be a jumble.

5. Intertillage spreads food production over the farming season
It reduces the loss from disease or pests or drought.
It helps control soil erosion and soil depletion.
Hill planted crops have deeper root systems and tall stalks while flat earth crops are spreaders.
No expensive fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides or machines are necessary
Not only are crops interplanted, but they are planted at different times, assuring harvest over a long period of time. The variety of crops ensures that there won’t be a catastrophic loss to disease, pest or drought.

6. Agricultural Societies are classified as:
Subsistence or Primitive
Intermediate or Traditional
Developed or Modern
Colonial Powers-Bad Points
Tried to compel subsistence farmers to modernize by charging them taxes
Made them devote valuable land to cash crops like cotton
Colonial Powers-Good Points
Conducted soil surveys
Built irrigation systems
Established lending agencies to loan money to farmers
In some areas the forced changes caused famines

7. Arable Land Percent Arable by Country
Does the percent of land that is arable in a country determine the agricultural output or the calorie consumption in a country?

8. Subsistence Agriculture
Agriculture in which people grow only enough food to survive.
- farmers often hold land in common
- some are sedentary, and some practice shifting cultivation
* slash-and-burn

9. World Regions of Primarily Subsistence Agriculture
On this map, India and China are not shaded because farmers sell some produce at markets; in equatorial Africa and South America, subsistence farming allows little excess and thus little produce sold at markets.

10. A family in Ecuador tend their potato field high in the mountains
Ecuador Ermelinda and her husband Orlando cultivate a potato field, a ten minute walk from home-note Ermelinda has her baby strapped to her back. Before working the field, they said a prayer to “Pacha Mamma” (Mother Earth).
A family in Ecuador tend their potato field high in the mountains

11. Above-Herding sheep in the Middle East
Cattle crossing the Niger River
Above-Herding sheep in the Middle East
Right-Cattle crossing the Niger River

12. Sheep slaughter house in a small village in Ecuador-wool, milk & meat
Zumbagua, Ecuador-a sheep slaughter house. Live animal market is ¼ mile away-shoppers can pick out the animal they want, have them killed, skinned and cleaned-entire process takes less than 1 hour.
Sheep slaughter house in a small village in Ecuador-wool, milk & meat