Subsistence Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods

Abstract

Agriculture is the cornerstone of human life. Farming feeds agricultural workers, other rural dwellers and those living and working in urban areas. Agriculture accounts for only 4% of value added to global domestic product, in contrast to industry’s 32% and the 62% contributed by services (World Bank, 2000b, p. 189). However these bald statistics do not reflect the real importance of the agricultural sector. Without this sector there would be no industry, no services and no urban areas. We all have to eat. Seed production, plant breeding, food production, processing and marketing have been interlinked worldwide activities for thousands of years.

Even if [rural] families are selling cows to pay hospital bills, [one] will hardly see tens of thousands of cows being auctioned at the market… Unlike in famine situations, buying and selling of assets in the case of AIDS is very subtle, done within villages or even among relatives, and the volume is small.

(Rugalema, quoted in Topouzis, 2000, p. 26)