Subsistence Production Research Articles

Employment in personal subsidiary farm: ethnic and regional features (the case of Khakassia)

Employment in a personal subsidiary farm (PSF), aimed at providing products for own subsistence, becomes an alternative to job for hire in conditions of high unemployment in rural areas. At the same time, the role of personal subsidiary farms varies in differing climatic, economic and socio-cultural conditions. The purpose of the article is to compare the practices of personal subsidiary farms in multiethnic region of Khakassia in order to identify the ethnoregional features of household farmsteads. Surveyed ethnic groups (566 respondents) are living in Russians, Khakass and Shors rural areas. Khakass people turned out to be the most active in the management of personal economy, the Shors were the least involved, and the Russians occupy a “middle” position. The differentiation of household plots is due to the fact that the motives for farming among these ethnic groups are not the same. Russians are engaged in economic activities mainly to provide themselves with food, although many of them just like this activity. The value of land and livestock is high for Khakass people and Shors, but most of them lead personal subsidiary farming rather as a habit.

Research on the Implementation of Customary Law in the Protection of Forests and Forest Land by Ethnic Minorities in Đắk Lắk Province (Vietnam) today

Livelihood methods and the transition from subsistence production to commodity production are factors affecting current communities and also influence the changes in nature and the capacity of communities in managing and using natural resources. This article is conducted based on the collection, evaluation, and analysis of current Vietnamese legal documents and policies on Land, Forest Protection and Development, Civil Codes, sub-law resolutions, and other local documents. It also involves analyzing documents on the current state of forests, forest land, ethnic minority groups, and their customary laws. The content of the article provides an overall picture of the current state of using customary law in the management and use of forests and forest land in ethnic minority communities at the study sites.

Rubber-Based Agroforestry Systems Associated with Food Crops: A Solution for Sustainable Rubber and Food Production?

Agroforestry is often seen as a sustainable land-use system for agricultural production providing ecosystem services. Intercropping with food crops leads to equal or higher productivity than monoculture and results in food production for industry and subsistence. Low rubber price and low labor productivity in smallholdings have led to a dramatic conversion of rubber plantations to more profitable crops. The literature analysis performed in this paper aimed at better understanding the ins and outs that could make rubber-based agroforestry more attractive for farmers. A comprehensive search of references was conducted in March 2023 using several international databases and search engines. A Zotero library was set up consisting of 415 scientific references. Each reference was carefully read and tagged in several categories: cropping system, country, main tree species, intercrop type, intercrop product, level of product use, discipline of the study, research topic, and intercrop species. Of the 232 journal articles, 141 studies were carried out on rubber agroforestry. Since 2011, the number of studies per year has increased. Studies on rubber-based agroforestry systems are performed in most rubber-producing countries, in particular in Indonesia, Thailand, China, and Brazil. These studies focus more or less equally on perennials (forest species and fruit trees), annual intercrops, and mixed plantations. Of the 47 annual crops associated with rubber in the literature, 20 studies dealt with rice, maize, banana, and cassava. Agronomy is the main discipline in the literature followed by socio-economy and then ecology. Only four papers are devoted to plant physiology and breeding. The Discussion Section has attempted to analyze the evolution of rubber agroforestry research, progress in the selection of food crop varieties adapted to agroforestry systems, and to draw some recommendations for rubber-based agroforestry systems associated with food crops.

Yield performance of virus free sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) cultivars in the highlands of Papua New Guinea

ABSTRACT Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) is the dominant staple food crop in the Highlands Provinces in Papua New Guinea (PNG), but productivity is constrained by pests and diseases including viral pathogens. Meristem-tip culture and thermotherapy can be used to eliminate viral pathogens in planting material, overcoming productivity constraints caused by viral infections. In this study, the performance of four PNG sweetpotato cultivars grown from virus-cleaned or farmer-sourced planting material were assessed at four production locations in PNG Highlands Provinces. Total root yields were significantly increased in three of the four cultivars by using virus-cleaned material, with root number and root weight increasing as well as root quality. A weak interaction between the origin region of a cultivar and trial site location was observed, suggesting that response to virus-cleaning may be lower when cultivars selected for tolerance to pathogens in a production region are grown in the same region after virus-cleaning. The results demonstrated that under traditional production practices in gardens frequently used for sweetpotato production, the use of virus-cleaned planting material is a viable practice for farmers aiming to transition from subsistence production to commercial production.

Interwoven Landscapes: Gender and Land in the Kafue Flats, Zambia

This paper examines changes in formal and informal land access rules for women in the Kafue Flats of southern Zambia and identifies alternatives to land privatization. In rural African communities dependent on subsistence production, access to common pool resources (CPRs) such as fisheries, wildlife or wild fruits made an important contribution to household food and nutritional security. In the pre-colonial period, the use of agricultural land and associated CPRs was governed by local institutions of common property, characterized by more-than-human relationships embedded in the local animistic ontology. To examine how women’s pre-colonial access rights were increasingly disregarded in the wake of new statutory laws, we analyzed qualitative ethnographic data on livelihoods and food security from three time periods between 2002 and 2018. The findings show how customary law land tenure has remained important, despite being complemented by statutory law designed to also protect women’s property rights. We conclude that women’s customary access rights to land and CPRs must be taken into account in the drafting of formal legislation, as suggested by successful examples of bottom-up institution building in other regions.

Evolution of Economic and Social of “Ruea Nuea” in Khiri Wong Community of Lan Saka District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, Thailand

This research brought together the issues of economic and social identity of the Khiriwong community with information about the lives of the people in this community to link to the creation of shared values of innovation through the use of the disappearance of the Ruea Nuea over time, wants to highlight the identity and evolution of Ruea Nuea, and tries to present the relationship based on the way of subsistence production in the past through stories that show the importance. This research aims to study the Economic and Social Evolution of “Ruea Nuea” in the Khiri Wong Community of Lan Saka District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province. This qualitative research included 16 key informants, namely elderly people and village sages who knew about Ruea Nuea in the Khiri Wong Community. This study focuses on participant observation by organizing the group conversation process. It uses structured interviews and opens community forums for data processing and analysis to connect issues. It synthesizes the descriptive analysis and presents the narrative study results of the community. The results showed that the Economic and Social Evolution of Ruea Nuea, consisted of: The era of prosperity in subsistence production. Ruea Nuea was a tool for the occupation with the social and economic lifestyle and the relationship system of people in the Khiriwong community. It is considered a range of "Subsistence production", and living a self-sufficient life. The transition era of marketing relationship production happened in this period. Convenient transportation and connection to the economic progress of the community. “The market system is integrated with the livelihood”, which led to the decline of the ship's role in Ruea Nuea, leading to conservation, and the recession and conservation through traditions and rituals of Ruea Nuea from the old to the new generation in the Kiriwong community. This leads to participation in the conservation of Ruea Nuea. It indicates that Ruea Nuea is important for the coordinating treatment, and create value for the local culture.

Can subsistence farmers commercialize? Evidence from the southern highlands of Tanzania

Improving rural livelihoods remains a challenge due to subsistence production. This study uses 206 surveys to assess whether smallholders can go commercial. We conducted the surveys in eight villages of the southern highlands of Tanzania, which we prioritized based on market access (low, high) and integration into commercial food systems (low, high). In addition, we included eight focus group discussions and six key informant interviews to supplement the survey data. We analyzed survey data using descriptive statistics and the general linear model with robust standard errors. Significant findings are fivefold. First, men dominate crops perceived as commercial, and women are less likely to be commercial. Second, youth are more likely to be commercial than adults. Third, smallholders are willing to quit farming over employment. Fourth, over half of surveyed smallholders perceived themselves as commercially oriented to a small extent, moderate, or great extent. Fifth, factors such as the sex of smallholders, age, land ownership, access to extension services, household size of the smallholder, and ownership of assets influenced the commercial orientation of smallholders. The study concludes that smallholders can indeed and gradually go commercial, albeit on a small scale and within the existing farming systems.

Access to provisioning services by local communities from Mpanga central forest reserve in central Uganda

IntroductionForest resources are an important source of products on which rural communities depend for survival. Mpanga Central Forest Reserve (CFR) is a valuable resource to adjacent communities through provision of different goods and serves for subsistence and income generation. It also serves as an important eco-tourist site. However, there is scanty information regarding the products obtained from Mpanga CFR and their contribution to livelihoods of adjacent communities.MethodsThe study explored the provisioning services obtained from the CFR, assessed the contribution of the CFR to the surrounding communities and explored the challenges faced while obtaining these services from the forest reserve. Provisioning services are the material benefits supplied by the ecosystem. A total of 118 respondents were randomly selected from 11 villages in Kamengo sub-county Mpigi District and interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires.Results and discussionThe residents obtained wild foods, medicinal herbs, fuelwood, construction and carving materials. Most of the respondents used obtained products for subsistence (51%) while the rest sold them. Regression analysis revealed that 76.5% of the variability in cash income from the CFR is significantly explained by age of respondents, period of stay and education level. Increase in age and educational level of respondents reduced ability to obtain cash income from the forest by (β = −0.19) and (β = −0.625), respectively but increase in period of stay acted in the reverse (β = 0.22). Despite the importance of provisioning services in improving the livelihood of communities adjacent the forest, some challenges in accessing the forest were reported. The quantities of some extracted species had declined over a 5-year period resulting in reduction of household income. This negatively impacts on the livelihoods of the young and uneducated that depend on forest activities for income generation. It is pertinent that alternative livelihood options are sought to address this trend. Also, forest management strategies should provide a win-win situation to forest managers and communities adjacent to the forest. This will not only preserve the forest resource but will also ensure a sustainable livelihood to forest dependent communities.

Locality in national and global perspectives: An agenda for research

Prior to 1966, Indonesia was regarded as a country with an outdated order system. After the establishment of a new social order characterized by the incorporation of markets into people's lives, this period came to an end. The market's integration into society has transformed traditional self-sufficiency through subsistence production practices into a market-oriented and centralized modern society oriented toward the market. Various local beliefs, values, and practices have been supplanted with new ones as a result of the modern nation's formation. The national language, which functions as a measure of nationalism, has become a central factor that has transformed and threatened local languages. As a result, the influence of local languages has diminished significantly as urbanization, the offspring of welfare programs, has increased. National legal policies are enforced despite coexisting with customary laws, demonstrating modernization's dominance over marginalized local cultures. Under the guise of "progress," the new lifestyle is a component of the modernization project that not only shapes a new social practice but also disorients values and adds new hues to the system of ideas, values, and social practices that serve as the basis for societal development.

Community-based forest management promotes survival-led livelihood diversification among forest-fringe communities in Uganda

Livelihood diversification is a prominent feature of rural households in developing countries. It is a strategy commonly pursued by households to enhance their resilience to shocks and/or risks that affect their livelihood. While a common characteristic of Uganda’s community-based forest management (CBFM) is the promotion of alternative livelihood activities to reduce household reliance on natural forest resources from gazetted forests, it is unclear how livelihood diversification has been embraced by households engaged in CBFM. We explore livelihood diversification using cross-sectional survey data collected from 423 households in villages adjacent to Collaborative Forest Management (CFM) compartments and non-CFM compartments of Budongo Central Forest Reserve as well as two Community Forests (CF) in mid-western Uganda. We quantified the levels of diversification and fitted a Gini-Simpson Diversity Index as the response variable in two Tobit regression models to examine the determinants of livelihood diversification among forest-fringe communities in CFM and CF sites. Our results reveal high levels of survival-led household livelihood diversification in the area, with an average household engaging in five livelihood activities that were predominantly on-farm or involved the extraction of forest products for subsistence. In the CFM sites, livelihood diversification levels significantly increased with household heads’ duration of residence in the village and membership in other social groups in the village. In villages adjacent to the community forests, only the household dependency ratio positively influenced household livelihood diversification. Membership in forest conservation groups did not significantly predict the level of household livelihood diversification. Given the current survival-led diversification that these communities pursue, we recommended that development and conservation agencies in the area and other similar sites of CBFM deliberately enhance household access to high-return on-farm and non-farm livelihood activities to achieve meaningful transformations in rural livelihoods.

Feed the futureland: an actor-based approach to studying food security projects

Critical development and food studies scholars argue that the current food security paradigm is emblematic of a ‘New Green Revolution’, characterized by agricultural intensification, increasing reliance on biotechnology, deepening global markets, and depeasantization. High-profile examples of this model are not hard to find. Less examined, however, are food-security programs that appear to work at cross-purposes with this model. Drawing on the case of Feed the Future in Guatemala, I show how USAID engages in activities that valorize ancestral crops, subsistence production, and agroecological practices. Rather than the result of macro-level planning—of either the New Green Revolution or a greener reform regime—I argue that nonconforming food security projects can be traced to individual actors and their interactions on the ground. I draw on an ‘interface approach’ (Long 1990), focusing on the lifeworlds of development workers, their interfaces with each other, and with the to-be-developed. Doing so reveals how food security projects are significantly shaped by the relationships and interests of development actors enmeshed in particular organizational and national settings. This research contributes a fresh perspective on the food security paradigm and its role within the ‘corporate food regime’.

Why is farming important for rural livelihood security in the global south? COVID-19 and changing rural livelihoods in Nepal's mid-hills

Over the last three decades, Nepal has experienced a rapid transition in rural livelihoods, from largely subsistence farming to more diversified off-farm employment and remittances. Despite this, subsistence farming continues to be a central part of rural production. Why does farming persist in the face of other, more remunerative, off-farm employment options? In this article we argue that subsistence food production continues to be important for rural livelihood security by providing food needs from farming, thus helping households to cope with uncertainties in off-farm employment and international labor migration. Taking the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of a high level of livelihood stress, the paper provides insights and further explanations on the logic of maintaining subsistence food production as part of rural households' livelihood security. Drawing on in-depth qualitative study, complemented with a quantitative survey from eight villages in rural Nepal, we examine the impact of the pandemic on farming and off-farm activities and explore the reasons behind peoples' choice of livelihood strategies and how these vary between different social groups. We show that there was only limited impact of the dramatic disruptions caused by the global pandemic on subsistence farming, however it brought substantial challenges for emerging semi-commercial farming and off-farm incomes, including both local and migratory wage labor. During the pandemic, people increased their reliance on locally produced food, and subsistence farming served as a critical safety net. Our analysis underscores the continued importance of subsistence production amidst contemporary shifts toward off-farm employment among rural households. We also find a growing interest in semi-commercial farming among farmers with better access to land who seek state support to develop such production. This suggests that it is important for agricultural development policy to recognize and support subsistence farming alongside emerging commercial agriculture production as an integral foundation of future farming and rural livelihood security.

BaYaka forager food sharing networks in the Congo Basin: The roles of gender homophily and kin sharing

AbstractObjectivesFood sharing is a costly form of cooperation that was likely critical to human evolutionary success, including the emergence of human's life history strategy. Food sharing in human communities may be maintained through a number of pathways, including direct dyadic reciprocity, reputation‐based processes, and kin‐biased exchange. Differences in reproductive demands, labor, and cultural norms may also result in gendered differences in cooperative networks. Here, we examine cooperative networks in egalitarian BaYaka foragers from the Congo Basin.Materials and MethodsWe collected social network data from 112 adults in 41 households in this subsistence community. We implement a Bayesian latent network model to assess individual‐, dyadic‐, and block‐level predictors of food sharing partners.ResultsConditioning on covariates, we found limited evidence for direct dyadic reciprocity in food sharing. Despite local norms regarding prestige avoidance, we found status‐based homophily. High‐status individuals—council members and local healers—were more likely to share with one another. Importantly, our results highlight gender differences in patterns of food sharing, interacting with genetic relatedness. Women were more likely to share with one another, especially with kin as genetic relatedness increased.DiscussionOur results align with evolutionary framing emphasizing kin selection in costly cooperation. The results showing that women cooperate with other women, particularly kin, also complement sex‐based patterns in some other mammalian species, potentially reflecting the social support necessary to manage reproductive costs and childcare. BaYaka women's subsistence productivity and local cultural dynamics for autonomy and egalitarianism may likewise help facilitate women's preferential cooperation with one another.

Quintais: tipologia e contribuição para a segurança alimentar no México

ABSTRACT: Backyards are family settings adjacent to the house, characterized mainly by being small-scale and diversified productive spaces. The research typologically characterized the backyards and their contribution to family food security in La Concordia municipality, Chiapas, Mexico. The research was descriptive and mixed, quantitative, and qualitative, and semi-structured interviews were applied to 130 families. For the typification, 21 variables were used, and the statistical techniques of Factorial Analysis and Clusters were applied. The cases studied were classified, according to the relevance of their production and contribution to food security, into two general groups: a) a group of backyards that is more productive and contributes to food security, which in turn includes three subtypes of backyards that differ from each other by their profile towards vegetable or poultry production for subsistence, and/or pigs as a form of savings; b) a group of less productive backyards in which other management strategies for food security are assumed and differ from each other by the level of expulsion of labor force and types of families, nuclear or extended. Poultry and plant species for multiple uses was the most frequently characteristic, regardless of the type of backyard.

The agrarian economy of occupied territories. What are the agricultural enterprises of the Luhansk and Donetsk region earning?

ABSTRACT We consider the peculiarities of the agricultural economy of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). Seven years of conflict has brought about an escalation of prices for food, fuel, and other necessities; farmers growing for subsistence, and even commercial enterprises, face a lack of transport, high costs, low prices and distant markets; investment is held back without safe access and insecurity severely limits people’s ability to adapt. Many have migrated: those who remain on their land find it increasingly hard to provide for themselves, faced with unenviable choices such as the systematic slaughter of livestock and reduction of cultivated areas. Production will continue to fall, which will further push up food prices. There is an urgent need to support subsistence production and stabilise agricultural activities with concrete and timely assistance to the most vulnerable.

Accounting for ecosystem services and asset value: pilot accounts for KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Pilot monetary ecosystem accounts were compiled for KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, in order to highlight any data, methodological or process issues in their compilation and to contribute towards charting a strategy for ecosystem accounting. The Province is highly diverse, with eight biomes, large proportions under communal, private and state tenure, globally important biodiversity, variable landscape condition and encompassing catchment areas of nine river systems. We accounted for the supply and use of wild biomass, reared animal production, cultivation (including silviculture), nature-based tourism, property value, carbon storage and sequestration, pollination, flow regulation (maintenance of base flows), sediment retention, water quality amelioration and flood attenuation. For each ecosystem service, we devised conceptually valid methods that were suitable for the existing data to produce values consistent with the System of National Accounts. These were then summed to estimate total annual flows from each 100 x 100 m spatial unit and its asset value. Challenges encountered included lack of data on small-scale and subsistence production, mismatches in the classification of landcover and government production statistics, unreliable measures of ecosystem condition, the large scale of hydrological modelling and lack of centralised data organisation relating to hydrological services. There was heavy reliance on past empirical research and on global datasets. The combined value of the annual flow of the ecosystem services valued was R52.5 billion in 2011, equivalent to 12% of the provincial GDP. However, the values of many of the services have decreased over the accounting period, due to a combination of changes in demand and ecosystem condition. Asset value was undermined to some extent by unsustainable use of provisioning services. Some areas will require careful messaging, particularly in regard to the contentious issue of valuing carbon retention and the use of exchange values rather than welfare values that are used in economic analysis.

Population, biomass, and economic value of small ruminants in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia has a large population of small ruminants (sheep and goats) which are mostly kept in traditional subsistence production systems that are poorly described. Understanding these different systems, their population structure, biomass, production, and economic value is essential for further analysis and effective policy making. The objective of this study was to quantify these parameters for small ruminant production systems in Ethiopia to use them as a basis for analysis of disease burden within the Global Burden of Animal Diseases program. Population structure and trends of small ruminants were analyzed using data from ten annual national agriculture surveys. A stochastic herd model was used to simulate the small ruminant population, biomass, and economic value. The model was parameterised stochastically using data from statistical databases and the literature, and sensitivity analysis of main model outputs to the stochastic inputs was done. Small ruminants are held across the country mainly managed under two major production systems: the crop-livestock mixed system and the pastoral system. The small ruminant population has grown in the past 10 years with an average annual growth rate of 4.6% for sheep and 6.7% for goats. The national average small ruminant population for 2021 was projected at 96.4 (range 95.3–97.7) million heads and the mean stock biomass was about 2,129 (range 1,680–2,686) million kilograms. The monetary value of the small ruminant population was estimated at USD 5,953 (range 4,369–7,765) million. The annual monetary value of small ruminant production outputs was estimated at USD 1,969 (range 1,245–2,857) million. Although the small ruminant population is large and rapidly growing, contributing about 2% of national annual GDP, the sub-sector is characterized by low productivity, low offtake rates, and a limited range of production outputs with no signs of intensification. Efforts should be made to reduce small ruminant mortality, improve fertility, and better utilize products such as milk to improve the livelihoods of rural households and to benefit the national economy. The approaches developed in this study can be replicated in other systems and countries to reveal trends in the size and value of livestock systems, providing a better understanding of its economic importance and performance.

Circuits of Social Reproduction: Nature, Labor, and Capitalism

This article offers a reformulation of social reproduction theory’s (SRT’s) circuit of social reproduction that is suitable for the Global South. Drawing from existing literature, the article argues that wage labor is not always central to social reproduction and that there exist multiple labors of social reproduction associated with capitalist production, noncapitalist commodity production, and subsistence production. These stylized interrelated labor processes, which are coconstituted with nature, represent the circuits of social reproduction. The circuits clarify how working people engage in social reproduction even when the wage economy is inadequate for survival. They also offer a basis for interrogating crises of social reproduction when the totality of work time does not guarantee socially determined necessary consumption. These reworked circuits present opportunities for identifying both potential sites of exploitation and sites of resistance in the Global South. JEL Classification: B51, B54, Q56

PENGUATAN EKONOMI KELUARGA MELALUI SUBSISTENSI PRODUKSI

Strengthening the family economy through subsistence production is an important activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Savings in expenditure by producing the goods needed by themselves, helps maintain family economic stability which in turn has an impact on the stability of family welfare. The program to strengthen the family economy through subsistence production aims to help housewives in an effort to save household expenses productively. The method applied in the socialization of this program is done with lectures and practice in the form of videos uploaded through the Watshaap group. Participants in this program are 52 housewives in Pedurenan Village, Mustika Jaya, Bekasi City. The enthusiasm of the program participants was supported by the cooperation of the village apparatus, especially the Lurah woman and the head of the PKK of the Pedurenan village, Mustikajaya

The Political Ecology of COVID-19 and Compounded Uncertainties in Marginal Environments

In this paper, we use a political ecology lens to look at how COVID-19 adds to a set of existing uncertainties and challenges faced by vulnerable people in the marginal environments of coastal India. Over the last few decades, local people have been systematically dispossessed from resource commons in the name of industrial, urban and infrastructure development or conservation efforts, leading to livelihood loss. We build on our current research in the TAPESTRY (https://tapestry-project.org/) project in coastal Kutch and Mumbai to demonstrate how the pandemic has laid bare structural inequalities and unequal access to public goods and natural resources. The impacts of COVID-19 have intersected with ongoing food, water and climate crises in these marginal environments, threatening already fragile livelihoods, and compounding uncertainties and vulnerabilities. Extreme weather events such as cyclones, droughts, heatwaves and floods in the last couple of decades have also compounded the problems faced in these regions, affecting seasonal migration patterns. We demonstrate how responses from “above” have been inadequate, failing to address problems, or arriving too late. Authoritarian leaders have used the pandemic to “other” and victimise certain groups and polarise society along religious lines. Lockdowns and covid restrictions have been used to surreptitiously complete environmentally destructive infrastructure projects, while avoiding resistance and opposition from affected local communities, who have also been subject to increased surveillance and restrictions on movement. While state responses have often been unpredictable and inadequate, there has been an outburst of local forms of mutual aid, solidarity, and civic action. There are also many examples of resilience at the local level, especially amongst communities that have largely relied on subsistence production. Despite the acute suffering, COVID-19 has also prompted civic groups, activists, and local communities to reflect on the possibilities for reimagining transformative pathways towards just and sustainable futures.