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Difference Between Subsistence Farming And Intensive Farming

Difference Between Subsistence Farming And Intensive Farming

Farming / By Farming Base / 7 minutes of reading

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Nowadays there are more and more different ways on how to approach farming. The goal is always the
same – get the best product there is. Some of the farming options are subsistence farming and intensive
farming. What must you know about the difference between subsistence farming and intensive farming
if you want to be a farmer?

There are a lot of differences between subsistence and intensive farming. Some of them are the use of
fertilizers and pesticides or not, the use of modern farming techniques or not, the use of a wide variety
of seeds or the use of poorly seeds, and more.

There is more and more technology being incorporated into modern farming nowadays. But still, there
are some farmers that use the old and more traditional techniques with their farming. There are some
benefits to both intensive and subsistence farming. Most commercial agriculture is intensive farming,
and subsistence farming is reserved for families to grow their own food.

Contents show

What Is Subsistence Farming?

Difference Between Subsistence Farming And Intensive Farming

Under the term of subsistence farming, one considers a self-sufficiency farming system in which farmers
grow their food to feed themselves and their families. They focus on getting enough food using more
traditional techniques that can sometimes result in poorer results.
The output of subsistence farming is mostly for local requirements, and include little or no surplus trade.
Some people decide on subsistence farming so they could simply provide good and organic, high-quality
food to their families and children.

It is important to mention that subsistence farming usually doesn’t use any chemical pesticides,
antibiotics, or hormones, because these substances cause a lot of damage to the human body, and food
loses its real taste as well.

Subsistence farming is a farming option for smaller farms or even family houses. For example,
subsistence farming can be growing food for your family’s direct consumption. That can be a backyard
garden, including fruits, starch crops, and animals as well.

What Is Intensive Farming?

Intensive farming or intensive agriculture and industrial culture is a type of agriculture, arable farming,
and animal husbandry that enables a higher level of input and production per square unit of the
agricultural land area. Intensive farming is characterized by low tillage, higher use of capital and labor,
and higher crop yields per unit area of land.

Most commercial farms and agriculture is intensive in one or more ways. Farming that relies on
industrial methods is often called industrial agriculture that is characterized by innovation aimed at
increasing yields. There are some techniques that characterize this kind of farming and it is planting
more crops per year, reducing the frequency of years of land rest, and more.

Intensive farming includes the increased use of fertilizers, plant, and pesticide growth regulators, and
modern, mechanized agriculture as well. This kind of farming includes continuous innovations in
agricultural machinery and farming methods. There are also included genetic technology, techniques for
achieving economies of scale, logistics, and technology for data collection and analysis.

One must mention that intensive farms are most common in developed countries and are becoming
more and more popular worldwide. Most of the products such as meat, dairy, eggs, fruits, and
vegetables that are being sold in the supermarkets come to set up such farms.
There are also some intensive farms that may use sustainable methods that require higher labor inputs
or lower yields.

When it comes to animals, intensive animal husbandry involves a large number of animals raised on
limited land, for example, in the western world as farms with concentrated animal nutrition. Thanks to
these techniques and methods, the yield of food and fiber per acre is increased compared to extensive
livestock for example.

What Techniques And Technologies Do They Use?

There are a lot of more modernized techniques and technologies being used when it comes to intensive
farming. For example, pasture intensification is the improvement of pasture and grass soil to maximize
the potential of food production in livestock systems.

This method is commonly used to reverse pasture degradation which is a process characterized by
forage loss and reduced animal carrying capacity. The result of that is from overgrazing, poor nutrient
management, and lack of soil conservation as well.

What is worse is that this degradation leads to poor grazing land with reduced fertility and water
availability, and increased rates of erosion, degradation, and acidification. Degraded pasture compared
to intensified pastures have significantly lower productivity and higher carbon footprints.

What Is The Difference Between Subsistence Farming And Intensive Farming?

Difference Between Subsistence Farming And Intensive Farming

Intensive Farming Subsistence Farming

Use of fertilizers and pesticides No fertilizers or pesticides

Use of irrigationNo irrigation

Very good variety of seeds Seeds of poor quality

Modern farming techniques No modern farming techniques

The yield per hectare is high and usually made for profit Yield per hectare is much less and just enough
to be consumed by that particular family

There are various differences between subsistence and intensive farming concerning the use of
technology, and modern farming techniques, the use of fertilizers, and more. Intensive farming is a more
modern and high productive kind of farming where subsistence farming uses traditional methods.

Subsistence farming is a type of farming in which generally poor farmers cultivate crops in a very small
piece of land. Whereas in intensive farming the farmers cultivate crops in small fields but in a good way,
meaning using more modern techniques and incorporate new technologies to better their products.

The farmers that own subsistence farms use no fertilizers or pesticides, whereas the intensive farms use
chemical fertilizers to protect their crops and allow better harvest in the end. The subsistence farms can
also be home farms or gardens for growing organic food for personal use.

It is important to mention that in subsistence farming the farmers use poor quality seeds, and in
intensive farming, there are farmers that use very good quality seeds. These farmers tend to get the
best product there is to later sell it and earn money from it.

Intensive farming or intensive agriculture is a kind of farming where a lot of capital and labor are used to
increase the yield that can be obtained per area. The intensive farms also use medication for animal
stocks whereas the substantive farms don’t use it.

The output in subsistence farming is mostly for local requirements or personal use, as I mentioned
before. Opposite to that, the intensive farming the yield per hectare is high and are meant for sale. This
type of farming is commercialized and requires a lot of hard work and labor.

There is a lot of money put into intensive farming for the new technologies, the high-quality seeds, the
animal stock, and the medication that is required to obtain healthy life and in the end a good product to
sell. This type of farming is generally only done for profit.
You can call yourself subsistence farming if you own a backyard vegetable garden and are growing
vegetables, fruits, and crops. The vegetables and fruits grown in subsistence farms have no pesticides
which result in healthier products in the end.

It is important to mention that the efficient use of fertilizers and pesticides in intensive farming is due to
improve the quality of crops. It is important for intensive farms to obtain good products fast and without
any diseases so they can sell them and earn money.

One more thing that differs sustenance farming from intensive farming is the irrigation in the field. The
subsistence farms don’t do irrigation in the field whereas intensive farming does it. Therefore the
production in the subsistence farm is limited, it depends upon the monsoon and fertility of the soil. The
intensive farms have better results and usually sell their products to grocery shops and markets.

Both subsistence farming and intensive farming have one in common, and that is the seeding and
harvesting of the crops, vegetables, and fruits. If you want to try and become a farmer, choose the type
of farming that suits you best. Some enjoy the small farms and organic food, and some want to earn
profit from their agricultural knowledge which is also fine.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Commercial Agriculture

Advantages and Disadvantages of Commercial Agriculture

Farming / By Farming Base / 5 minutes of reading

Farming Base (farmingbase.com) is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an
affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by
advertising and linking to Amazon.com. This site also participates in other affiliate programs and is
compensated for referring traffic and business to them.

Throwback to 10,000 to 12,000 years ago when the first phase of the agricultural revolution. It made an
overture to the process of hunting and gathering for food supplies. The revolution provided new
horizons to the society, where they started to cultivate the soil, plant seeds, and utilized plows and
animals to assist the phenomena of agriculture. From here it takes two different roads to agriculture,
i.e., subsistence agriculture and commercial agriculture. It was the second agricultural revolution that
highlighted the importance of commercial agriculture.
Commercial agriculture turned the hand labor to machine farming. This fact hides the various
advantages and disadvantages of commercial agriculture. On the one hand, it increased the yield of
crops; on the other hand, it imposed threats to the environment.

As mentioned earlier, all credit goes to the second agricultural revolution that shifted the mode of work
from hands to machines. It favored people and resulted in increased production and distribution of
crops. It was the time when the concept of commercial agriculture revolved around the globe. With the
evolution of fertilizers, chemical farming, and the technique of refining of food, this mode of agriculture
flourished to its maximum.

At present, commercial agriculture has taken up to 45% of the population worldwide, working in the
regime. It is 2% of the people in the United States and 80% in Asia and Africa. It is acting as one of the
leading professions among people in areas with fertile lands.

Contents show

What is commercial agriculture?

By definition, it is the phenomena in which the crops are yielded and aimed for sale on a large scale.
These crops are then supplied to markets and also kept for trading (export). This mode of agriculture
increases the yield to a level where it meets the requirement and buildout the production level even for
the non-food crops, i.e., tobacco or cotton. When used for sale, products of commercial agriculture put
up to economic grounds and play a vital role in GDP.

Be it a developed, developing, or third world country, commercial farming is practiced everywhere. The
phenomenon is successfully carried out in Southeast Asia and around the world. The Midwestern United
States and Central America are also playing an essential role in fruit plantation and wheat. Both of the
farming products flourish the agribusiness in the region. On a large scale, commercial farming is carried
out with rain-fed and traditional modes of irrigation.

Advantages of commercial agriculture

The ever flourishing mode of agriculture carries several advantages over subsistence farming. Some of
them are as follows:
A renowned advantage is the increased production or yield rate of the crops. By using machines to carry
out various farming techniques, it reduces the time to cultivate the land and add extra acreage to
production. With agricultural equipment, it is relatively easy to carry out processes like mechanizes
operations, controls pests, and diseases. With increased production, it adds value to the national food
stock.

As commercial farming utilizes machinery and electricity, it increases the power supply to areas in the
suburb of farming land. It helps to improvise the local infrastructure. Roads are paved for quick and
comfortable transportation of products and equipment.

With increased production, the prices of agricultural goods are lowered to make them accessible to
everyone. It helps to meet the demand and supply; instead, goods are stocked for an emergency.

By utilizing high-end machinery for cultivating the lands, now it takes less time to perform the
agricultural operations. Farmers employ the best equipment to plow, harrow, and plant and harvest the
crops. Moreover, the mode of irrigation is also improvised to lower down the cost of production.

It helps to create various vacancies where experts are hired to improve the production and economy.

Commercial farming acts as a source of raw material on a large scale. Fruit farming, in this regard, serves
other food industries. For example, fruits are supplied to enterprises for the production of juice,
whereas cocoa and coffee are yielded to keep up with the demand and supply of the confectionery
industry.

The food goods produced from farming are then subjected to trade. They are exported to other
countries, and this earns business. Non-agricultural countries are the target markets for agribusiness.

Disadvantages of commercial agriculture

Another side of the picture has something else to reveal about commercial agriculture. As it carries an
array of advantages, it also ends up with certain disadvantages. Here is the list of them:

To increase the acreage of production land, commercial farming is destroying the natural rainforests. As
the area under the coverage of rainforest is best to carry out cultivation. When the forest is removed to
cultivate crops, there appears a negative impact of deforestation on the environment.

With commercial farming becoming bigger and bigger, farmers are pursuing the profession, and every
available land is turning to farmland. With an immense increase in farmlands, now there are no more
lands available for cultivation, and farmers are restricted from using worn-out lands that, in turn, can
impose a threat to the production rate.

Lands for commercial farming are sold at higher rates, which makes it impossible for the new farmers to
purchase the land and to enter the business.
When crops like fruits and vegetables are cultivated on the farmlands, they are easily perishable. If not
sold at the right times, these crops can turn into dung within days. Moreover, a large amount is required
to carry out preservation techniques.

Commercial agriculture is the real culprit to promote fertilizers, herbicides, and other chemicals to
protect the crops against insect attacks. But these chemicals, in turn, are a vivid threat to humankind.

What is an example of commercial agriculture?

One of the best examples of a non-food product of commercial agriculture is cotton farming. Cotton is a
plantation crop that is famous for its potential in agribusiness. It serves as a raw material for the textile
industry.

The crop earns a high-end business for countries like the US, Pakistan, Egypt, China, and India. A cotton
crop gives the best yield in black and alluvial soil with low rainfall and bright sunshine.

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THE ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF…

What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Gardening?

POSTED ONJUNE 18, 2019 BY JOSEPH

What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Gardening?

The majority of seasoned gardeners will possibly say that there are zero disadvantages where gardening
is concerned.
Those gardeners that are forced into gardening because they’ve got a garden and it must be tidied up
from time to time will likely have a list of disadvantages of gardening.

Do remember that gardening as a hobby is a very different proposition to gardening as a professional.

Hobby gardeners are free to potter around outdoors. Professionals must make a living.

Anyhow, let’s now assess a few advantages and disadvantages of gardening.

Advantages of Gardening
1 Gardening is physically good for you

Irrespective of your physical condition or your age, gardening can provide you with excellent physical
exercise.

For those that suffer with stiff, painful joints, gardening helps to maintain range of motion and flexibility.

Digging, stooping down, and bending over can be hard work. Nevertheless, if you work smarter rather
than harder, digging, stooping over and bending don’t have to cause your body too much hardship.

Start out your gardening by doing some stretching exercises.

Alter the type of tasks you’re doing fairly regularly.

Make sure you have a break fairly regularly, too.

There are many different types of tools available for gardeners now, and many of those tools are
equipped to help you ergonomically.

If you can’t bend over for long, or can’t bend over at all, you might consider having raised beds in your
garden.

The key is to listen to what your body is telling you and don’t be tempted to keep at it if your comfort
zone is inviting you to do otherwise.

2 Mental health benefits on offer, too

If you want to get away from the usual (or not-so usual) daily stresses, spending some time in the
garden can definitely help out.
Pottering in the garden will help you to calm your mind and reduce any anxiety.

If you’re frustrated or angry, gardening can help you with that, too.

Gardening can help us with our self-esteem and it can quickly alter negative thinking to positivity.

Furthermore, there is research to suggest that some soil bacterias help us – or help our bodies – to
produce serotonin, a neurotransmitter. Serotonin helps us to counter depression and makes us feel
good.

3 Save money

It’s true that you can spend a lot of money on your garden.
It’s also a lot easier – a lot more convenient – to buy vegetables and fruit at the supermarket than it is to
grow your own.

However, if you are fond of growing vegetables and/ or fruit in your garden, there are numerous
benefits in comparison to buying from the local supermarket.

Homegrown vegetables and/ or fruit are cheaper – at least over the longer term.

Homegrown tastes far better.

Homegrown is also a lot fresher.

Then, on top of all of that, there’s just so much satisfaction to picking your own homegrown carrots,
potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, turnips, onions – you name it.
4 Soil is good for us

A lot of research has been undertaken and the results of which suggest that the underlying reasons for a
rise in allergies, in asthma and in other human illnesses is because kids rarely play out in the garden
these days – at least not in more developed countries.

In other words, the relationship we previously had when it was the norm to grow our own potatoes and
carrots at home is broken.

And because it’s broken, our immune systems are somewhat compromised.

Playing outside and playing, at least occasionally, in the dirt, provides a level of protection against a
range of human-related illnesses.
Disadvantages of Gardening

1 Gardening isn’t necessarily fun

Digging, kneeling, stooping or bending over, and a variety of other repetitive movements that are all
part of gardening can be harmful to your joints, to your bones, to your muscles, and can cause blisters
on your hands and possibly also on your feet.

It’s possible to get carpal tunnel syndrome if you utilize your hands, or hand, in a repetitive motion when
gardening.

When you’re kneeling, you can get knee-related problems.

When you’re bending over, your back can start to ache.

Plus, many types of gardening machinery are not necessarily completely safe to use. Chainsaw, anyone?

2 Garden-related infections

There’s no argument that garden soil can play host to harmful pathogens.

You can get tetanus (otherwise known as lock jaw), you can get Lyme disease, you can get Legionnaires
disease, you can get Weil’s disease (from rats), you can pick up fungal infections that are the cause of
respiratory illness.

3 Gardening is not a cheap pursuit

Ever thought about hiring a landscaper to design your garden? Unless you have an extremely small
garden, you’ll be looking at investing many thousands into the project.
But, even if you don’t need to do any landscaping, there’s the gardening equipment to buy.

There are the plants to buy.

There are the variety of soil amendments to buy, inclusive of fertilizers.

Investment into a greenhouse, perhaps?

You may need some garden machinery, too, such as a lawnmower, a chainsaw, a hedge trimmer…

4 The law is not always on your side

You may not be aware of this, but throughout the country, there are municipal governments that do not
permit backyard or front yard vegetable gardens.

If anyone complains about your veggie garden exploits, you could face a fine, you’ll be forced to ditch
your veggie garden, and you could even face jail time.
You should be mindful of tree-related issues, too.

Photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com from Pexels

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Advantage of continuous production system:

Continuous production offers the following advantages :

(a) The quality of output is kept uniform because each stage develops skill through repetition of work.

(b) Any delay at any stage is automatically detected. As a result, there is automatic control of time and
the direct labor content is reduced.

(c) Work-in-progress is minimum on account of sequence balancing.

(d) Handling of materials is reduced due to the set pattern of production line.

(e) Control over materials, costs and output is simplified. The repetitive nature of processes make
production control easier.

(f) Overhead cost per unit is reduced due to spreading of large fixed costs of specialized equipment over
a large volume of output.

(g) There is quick return on capital employed.

Disadvantages of Continuous Production System :

Continuous system, however, is very rigid and if there is a fault in one operation, the entire process is
disturbed. Due to continuous flow, it becomes necessary to avoid piling up of work or any blockage on
the line. Unless the fault is cleared immediately it will force the preceding as well as the subsequent
stages to be stopped.
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HOMEPAGEGARDEN & FARM

GARDEN & FARM

What is a market garden?

What is a market garden?

Market garden stand. | Photo by Zachary Zeigler

After years of successfully and deliciously self-sustaining, some homesteaders explore avenues to sell
their harvest. A market garden — a small-scale production of produce usually sold directly to customers
— is one way to do so.

The term “market garden” has a rich history, dating back to the late-18th century as a way to distinguish
vendors of any scale that sell vegetables and berries from producers of grain, dairy or orchard fruit.
Though agricultural historians continue to use the term this way, today, the term “market garden” is
more simply used to refer to the plot, the produce of which the farmer used to sell as opposed to using
to feed a family.

“It’s mainly a glorified garden and we can grow things for profit,” laughed Adrienne Wolff, co-owner of
Buckwheat’s Market Garden in Central Lake, Michigan. “I think we kind of decided on it being called a
‘market garden’ because our growing space was so small. We could turn out a decent profit on it, but
there’s a ceiling of how much production you can really crank out.”

Aside from the scale, market gardens are generally distinguished by their direct-to-consumer sales at
outlets like farm stands, farmers markets, community-supported agriculture subscriptions, restaurants
and independent produce stores.

Zachary Zeigler, owner of Zeigler’s Market Garden in Norfolk, Massachusetts, started his market garden
with two 50 by 50-foot garden beds and a greenhouse while he was still studying sustainable agriculture
at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Now, he has just under two acres of garden space that
he uses to provide food for a small community-supported agriculture subscription, a weekly roadside
stand and two farmers markets.

“Everything I grow is directly sold to customers,” Zeigler said. “Somehow, someway, we end up selling
most of our stuff.”

Zeigler’s Market Garden in Norfolk, Massachusetts. | Photo by Zachary Zeigler

The advantages of a market garden

Because of the scale, market gardening has lower barriers to entry and more room for experimentation
than other kinds of farming.

“Market garden was a more cost-effective way of seeing if we could run a farming business,” Wolff said.
“It’s just a lower scale. It offers more room for experimenting and seeing what crops you really like and
what you really don’t.”

The small size also requires less labor. Generally, the owners are able to manage harvests themselves
without having to hire laborers.

“It’s just the two of us [my fiance and I],” Wolff said. “We don’t have to hire outside help. It’s
manageable.”

The capital costs are also lower for starting a market garden as opposed to a larger-scale venture.

“We run everything pretty small scale,” Zeigler said. “We use hand tools and have no full-time
employees. That really keeps our overhead really low.”

Though market gardens are small, the profit margins can be higher.
“Farming’s margins are already horrendous so when you factor in a mortgage on more land or loans on
bigger equipment, the paychecks for the farmers can be pretty small,” Zeigler explained. “By staying
smaller scale, we’ve been able to have higher profits.”

Market garden stand. | Photo by Zachary Zeigler

The challenges of a market garden

The scale of a market garden can limit how much you can grow.

“There’s a ceiling,” Wolff said. “You can only produce so much.”

Market gardeners also have to be more diligent about timing in order to keep the production streams
steady.

“Because we are so small, we have to turn over our beds really quick,” Wolff said. “Once our salad mix is
done and we’ve harvested it, we have to rip it out and plant it again within the next couple of days so
that we’re not wasting space.”

Turning your garden into a source of income can also take away some of the romance of growing your
own food.

“I think that homesteaders really have a love for growing their own food, whereas if you turn it into a
job, like with any job, the romance of your passion or hobby kind of fades away a little bit,” Wolff
admitted.

Sam Schipani
Sam Schipani loves pollinators, fresh herbs, and learning how to live more sustainably in small spaces.
She has previously written for Sierra, Smithsonian, Earth Island Journal, and American Farm Publications.

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Truck farming

It is the method of growing special vegetable crops in relatively larger quantities for distant markets by
the employing of extensive methods. In this method of gardening, in general more extensive and less
intensive method of cultivation than market gardening is followed.

In recent years the development of national highways and efficient motor truck facilities have improved
this gardening considerably. The main feature of truck garden is given below.

a) Such farms are located far away from the centre of consumption preferably by the side of rail route or
metallic roads.

b) Price of land and labour is comparatively lower

c) Only few crops of semi perishable nature are grown on large area. Eg: Onion, Green chillies.

d) Cost of transportation is high.

e) Mechanization is followed partly or wholly.

f) The cost of cultivation is less.

Market garden

The main objective of market gardening is to produce vegetables for the local market. At present due to
development of transport facilities, growers are sending their produce even to distant markets where
prices are more attractive and profitable. Now vegetables are brought to the mandies from distant
villages by trucks. Timely and proper irrigation facilities, good seed, enough nutrition, abundant labour
supply and easy transportation facilities are essential for market gardening.
The places where market garden is practiced, the land value is very high. So it becomes necessary to
secure large returns per acre to realize some profit on the investment. For market gardening, crops like
peas, cauliflower, cucumber, tomato, chillies, onion etc., are grown.

Vegetable forcing

It is the method of growing the vegetables out of their normal season in net houses, green houses, glass
houses and under other artificial growing conditions. In Indian condition vegetable forcing is not
possible because the consumers cannot afford the prices of such vegetables.

The following are the characteristics of this type of farming.

a) Cost of production is higher than other method of vegetable production.

b) Various structures viz., green house, cold frames etc are required for forcing vegetables.

c) The cultivation is most intensive.

d) It requires special technical knowledge.

e) Environment is controlled artificially.

f) It is a sort of specialized demand oriented programme. Few vegetable crops such as tomatoes,
cucumbers, peas, asparagus etc are grown in this type of farming.