This form of agriculture is best developed in the monsoon lands of Asia such as China, Japan, Korea, India Pakistan, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

It is also practiced in Africa in countries such as Nigeria, Rwanda, Burundi and parts of Kenya.

Small plots of land are cultivated without fallow periods for many years to realize high crop outputs; Because of the dense population and land is scarce, the farmers have to use such intensive methods of cultivation to feed the large populations.

Emphasis is put on production of both food and cash crops. Basically there are two types of intensive subsistence

Farming i.e. that dominated by wet padi and that dominated by other crops such as sorghum, soya beans, sugar canes, maize and vegetables.

Characteristic features of intensive subsistence farming

The holdings are very small. Farms have been sub-divided through many generations so that they have become extremely small and often un-economic to run. In Japan for example a farm is approximately 1.5 acres but elsewhere in Asia farms may be even smaller.

Owing to shortage of land, farming has got to be very intensive with multiple cropping practiced frequently.

Farming is done using simple implements such as simple ploughs, spades and hoes.

To ensure high yields and the continued fertility of the land, the farmers make use of animal and plant manure, as fertilizers are expensive to buy.

Animal fanning is little developed because there is little pasture for the animals.

Wet padi is the chief crop grown in the low lands. Where it is not possible to grow padi due to climate, soils and relief, crops such as wheat, soya beans, millet, barley, sorghum and others are grown.

Mainly food crops are grown e.g. rice and wheat.

Much manual labour is used.

Irrigation is often employed to supplement the natural rainfall.

With the intervention of Europeans in India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia, intensive subsistence farming is giving way to more profitable large-scale cash crop cultivation on plantations.

Advantages of small scale farming

Small-scale farming is where small portions of land usually between 1-5 acres are used for growing of crops and rearing of animals. The crops are grown and animals are reared for subsistence purposes mainly and very little if any at all is left for sale. Types of small-scale farming include: shifting    

Cultivation, rotational bush fallowing and small-scale holdings. These are widespread in Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Malawi, Liberia, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana and other countries.

Their advantages include:-

In small-scale farming, the farmer mainly uses family labour whose costs are very small. The use of hired labour is on very small scale if at all used. In Ghana for example women and children are greatly involved in the planting, weeding and harvesting of crops such as maize, cassava, yams and vegetables.

Little capital is used on the farm. In countries such as Nigeria, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, simple tools such as pangas, spades, hoes, digging sticks and others are used.

On small-scale farms, food crops are mainly grown such as peas, beans, maize, cassava, vegetables, yams and others. These support large population. Nigeria is the most popular state in Africa and about 80 per cent of the population lives in rural areas. These largely depend on food produced on their small farms.

The quantity of crops produced on small-scale farms in most cases surpasses.that.produced by other forms of agriculture such as plantation farming.

The crops grown have a ready local market. In the Democratic Republic of Congo about 60 per cent of the population is engaged in agriculture mainly for home consumption while in Zambia it is estimated that about 80 per cent of the total crop production is consumed locally.

Crops grown are exported thus earning the respective countries foreign exchange. In Nigeria, cocoa is a major export and is mainly grown by African farmers on small farms.

Other export crops grown on small-scale farms include groundnuts in Gambia, cotton in Sudan and Egypt, coffee in Uganda, cocoa in Ghana and oil palm in Guinea Bissau.

Farmers grow many different types of crops on the same piece of land. As different crops make different demands upon the soil, a higher density of plants per unit area is possible, thus enabling the farmer to obtain the maximum amount of food from land which . is under cultivation.

Related to the above, the mixture of different plants provides a good cover for the soil thus helping to protect it from erosion.

The prices of agricultural produce fluctuate widely on the world market. This does not affect the small-scale farmers much as they grow many different types of crops. Plantations on other hand specialize in the production of a single crop and they are extremely vulnerable to fluctuations in world market prices.

The crops grown are mainly subsistence crops. The farmer therefore has enough food for his family.

Farmers are given several concessions and preferential treatment by their governments such as no Taxes.

The farmers are very flexible. They can easily change from growing one crop. to another depending on market prices, climatic conditions and such.

In small-scale farming, individual farms are clearly demarcated and separated thus reducing the spread of diseases.