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Factor and cluster analysis are used to analyse the attitudes and perceptions of agricultural households in five EU New Member States towards farming, commercialisation, and barriers to and drivers for an increased integration in agricultural markets. The contribution of unsold output to the total household income is valued. A stepwise linear regression is employed to detect important variables explaining the degree of agricultural market integration of farm households. The analysis indicates that subsistence farming is of utmost importance for the rural poor, and particularly in Bulgaria and Romania. The proportion of consumption from own production, manual cultivation techniques and distance to an urban centre negatively affect output sales. Rural development policies targeted at rural physical and market infrastructure might relieve some of these constraints.

Klappentext: "Viewing the subsistence farm as primarily a 'demographic enterprise' to create and support a family, this book offers an integrated view of the demography and ecology of preindustrial farming. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, it examines how traditional farming practices interact with demographic processes such as childbearing, death, and family formation. It includes topics such as household nutrition, physiological work capacity, health and resistance to infectious diseases, as well as reproductive performance and mortality. The book argues that the farming household is the most informative scale at which to study the biodemography and physiological ecology of preindustrial, non-commercial agriculture. It offers a balanced appraisal of the farming system, considering its strengths and limitations, as well as the implications of viewing it as a 'demographic enterprise' rather than an economic one. A valuable resource for graduate students and researchers in biological and physical anthropology, cultural anthropology, natural resource management, agriculture and ecology"--

Rural development is a topical issue in South Africa. Several studies, policies and strategies as regards rural develop-ment are discussed at various levels and platforms. However, despite the efforts made by government and non-governmental bodies, rural communities such as the Mtubatuba community situated in the north-east region of KwaZu-lu-Natal and many other rural communities still wallow in poverty. In consonance to the high prevalence of poverty and stagnation of subsistence farming, the paper aims to suggest other approaches to addressing the cyclical poverty and defunct subsistence farming in this community. To accomplish this aim, a mixed research approach was used; as elements of qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (questionnaire) research approaches were used to obtain relevant information. The study reveals that water shortage has adversely undermined the development and growth of subsistence farming in this poor community. Furthermore, the difficulties experienced by the marginalized people of Mtubatuba are typical of many rural areas which have not fully benefitted from transformation in a post-apartheid South Africa. To address this concern, the study suggested the reallocation of the municipalities surplus budget to the investment of water resource management with the intent of transforming the subsistence farming into commercial farming; thus improving the standard of living and reducing poverty to a reasonable extent.

AbstractAlthough international migration is playing an increasingly important role in Nepal, at both the macro and household levels, and in particular for the poverty reduction of rural families, empirical work focusing on this phenomenon has been largely absent. With a special view on the rural poor, in this paper we investigate the impact of international labour migration on subsistence agricultural production in the Western Mid Hills of Nepal, based on a survey conducted among smallholders with migrating family members. The results demonstrate that international migration leads to negligence of cereals – paddy, wheat, maize and millet, in particular, being the major subsistence crops. While bearing a negative impact on family labour input, its impact on hired farm labour is positive. Yet it does not affect material inputs such as fertilizer, and although it helps to ease households' liquidity and capital constraints, it does not contribute to moving subsistence farming towards more profitable commercial farming. Therefore, although migration reduces poverty in the short run and also allows for higher daily consumption, its negative impact on cereal production requires attention by policymakers.

Concern over the loss of genetic diversity in the world's field crops has increased due to the commercial introduction of genetically modified crops. Mexico is particularly sensitive to this issue, as it is the center of genetic diversity for maize and home to a large number of indigenous farmers who propagate this diversity. This paper analyzes to what extent the biodiversity of maize may be endangered as subsistence farmers face decreasing market prices of maize. Off-farm migration is suggested as a potential rational response of farmers to the large and rapidly growing imports of maize from the U.S., a large share of which consists of genetically modified maize. The maize imports from the U.S. are seen not only as worsening the terms of trade of subsistence farmers but also as raising the risk of lower yields as indigenous varieties of maize may lose their resilience to environmental stress through contamination with genetically modified maize.

AbstractOur paper aims to explore the role of subsistence farming in Hungary by reviewing the literature, analyzing the primary data from a representative survey conducted in 2018 in Hungary and presenting two case‐studies. According to European and national‐level policy analysis, subsistence farming is a cornerstone of European agriculture, as it is a central element of a positive rural image. The paper is based on earlier theories on subsistence farming, and argues that it is worth analyzing the different factors influencing subsistence farming in order to better understand the motivations of participating in this kind of activity. The paper analyses the role of five different factors on subsistence farming: economic, societal, policy, discursive, and sustainability factors, and argues that, although all five factors are important in order to understand the phenomenon, economic and policy factors are the most important in this type of activity, while sustainability is almost imperceptible.