KAWA MULTIMEDIA PUBLICATIONS
Subsistence Farming
In this type of farming, the farmer’s objective is to grow enough food to meet his domestic and other family requirements. It is based on simple methods and tools and that is why it is inefficient. It relies mainly on human labour and produces yields which are so low and of poor quality such that farmers are naturally condemned to lives of poverty as if it is part of their culture.
A subsistence farmer is one who plants crops or rears animals for his own basic Requirements. If surplus is produced it is often sold or bartered for other goods. Subsistence farming involves the following types of farming. Hunting and gathering, Shifting cultivation, Bush fallowing and Nomadic pastrolism
Hunting and gathering.
Hunting is when wild animals are killed and meat is taken as a source of food. While gathering is the collection of plant roots, fruits and stems also as food. This type of farming is mainly practiced by the bushmen of Kalahari desert, Wanderobo of Kenya, pygmies of Eastern Congo, the Batwa and Bambuti of Rwanda and Congo forest.
Hunting and gathering has the following characteristics.Firstly, there are no permanent homes; secondly, the peasants use rudimentary methods and tools such as spears, arrows, hand hoes; thirdly, hunting is mostly done by men while gathering is mostly practised by women and finally it is the oldest system of agriculture
Hunting and gathering is well known for the following advantages. One, it is cheap and does not need money. Two, it is a quick and easy way of gathering food and three, hunting and gathering gives man more exercises and skills of self-reliance.
On the other hand this method has the following shortcomings. Life is at stake because animals can kill hunters; hunting is limited due to the extinction of some species; some animals are unreliable, and lastly it is very tiresome.
A subsistence farmer is one who plants crops or rears animals for his own basic Requirements. If surplus is produced it is often sold or bartered for other goods. Subsistence farming involves the following types of farming. Hunting and gathering, Shifting cultivation, Bush fallowing and Nomadic pastrolism
Hunting and gathering.
Hunting is when wild animals are killed and meat is taken as a source of food. While gathering is the collection of plant roots, fruits and stems also as food. This type of farming is mainly practiced by the bushmen of Kalahari desert, Wanderobo of Kenya, pygmies of Eastern Congo, the Batwa and Bambuti of Rwanda and Congo forest.
Hunting and gathering has the following characteristics.Firstly, there are no permanent homes; secondly, the peasants use rudimentary methods and tools such as spears, arrows, hand hoes; thirdly, hunting is mostly done by men while gathering is mostly practised by women and finally it is the oldest system of agriculture
Hunting and gathering is well known for the following advantages. One, it is cheap and does not need money. Two, it is a quick and easy way of gathering food and three, hunting and gathering gives man more exercises and skills of self-reliance.
On the other hand this method has the following shortcomings. Life is at stake because animals can kill hunters; hunting is limited due to the extinction of some species; some animals are unreliable, and lastly it is very tiresome.