Subsistence agriculture: shifting cultivation and intensive farming of monsoon Asia

Detail

1. What subsistence agriculture means

• Subsistence agriculture is farming where the farming area eats all or nearly all of what it grows. Very little is left over to sell.
• The opposite is commercial agriculture, where crops are grown mainly to sell.
• NCERT splits subsistence agriculture into two types:

Feature	Primitive subsistence (shifting cultivation)	Intensive subsistence
Where	Tropics of Africa, South and Central America, Southeast Asia (Fig. 4.7)	Densely populated monsoon Asia (Fig. 4.8)
Who	Tribal communities	Settled peasant families
Land use	A plot is used for 3–5 years and then left	The same plot is farmed every year, often with more than one crop a year
Tools	Digging sticks and hoes	Hand tools and animals; machines are few
Fertility kept by	Ash from burnt vegetation, then a long fallow (rest) period	Farmyard manure and irrigation
Main problem	Fallow period keeps getting shorter, so the land degrades	Tiny holdings and low output per worker

2. Primitive subsistence agriculture: shifting cultivation

• Shifting cultivation (also called slash and burn) means a farmer clears a forest patch, farms it for a few years, then "shifts" to a new patch.
• Where: tribal areas within the tropics (roughly between 23.5°N and 23.5°S). The main regions are the Congo basin and West Africa, the Amazon basin and Central America, and Southeast Asia, including north-east India (Fig. 4.7).
• How it works (cause → process → result): 1. Slash: trees and bushes are cut down. 2. Burn: the dried vegetation is set on fire. The ash adds nutrients (mainly potash) to the soil. 3. Sow: small patches are worked with digging sticks and hoes. No ploughs or machines are used. Mixed food crops are grown, such as dry rice, maize, millets, tubers and vegetables. 4. Decline: heavy tropical rain washes nutrients out of the thin soil (leaching: rainwater carries plant food down, below the reach of roots). After 3–5 years the soil is worn out. 5. Shift: the farmer clears a new patch and may come back to the old one years later, once the forest has grown back.

The jhum cycle and why it is breaking down

• Jhum cycle is the fallow (rest) gap between leaving a patch and coming back to farm it again.
• A long cycle is sustainable:

• With 15–20 years of rest, the forest grows back and the soil rebuilds its humus (rotted plant matter that makes soil rich).

• A short cycle is not:

• Population grows → more food is needed → patches are cleared again before they recover → the cycle shrinks to a few years.

• Result: soil erosion on steep slopes, weeds, lower yields, loss of forest and biodiversity.

• In India's north-eastern states, jhum with an "ever reducing cycle" is harming the environment and the productivity of land. It has also caused the genetic erosion (loss of varieties) of several bamboo species [6].

• This is why NCERT's exercise says "the future of shifting cultivation is bleak". Other reasons:
• Governments want land put to settled use.
• Forests are protected under forest laws.
• Settled farming, terrace farming and plantations of rubber, coffee, areca nut and so on are replacing jhum.

Local names of shifting cultivation

Name	Region
Jhuming / Jhum	North-eastern India
Milpa	Mexico and Central America
Ladang	Indonesia and Malaysia
Conuco	Venezuela
Roca	Brazil
Masole	Central Africa
Ray	Vietnam

3. Intensive subsistence agriculture of monsoon Asia

• Intensive subsistence agriculture means using a lot of labour and inputs on a small piece of land to get the most food from it, mainly for the family.
• Where: densely populated monsoon Asia (Fig. 4.8). This covers South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka), Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines) and East Asia (China, Korea, Japan).

Why high population density forces intensive farming

• Many people, little land:
• Monsoon Asia holds a very large share of the world's people (see world-population).

• Each family therefore gets only a tiny plot of land.

• Every square metre must be used:

• Two or three crops are grown each year on the same field (multiple cropping).

• Hill slopes are cut into steps called terraces to create flat fields (terrace cultivation; see the NCERT figure on terraced fields).

• Labour is cheap and plentiful while capital is scarce:

• Hand work and family labour replace machines.

• Result: yield per hectare is high, but output per worker is low.

Type (i): Wet paddy dominated intensive subsistence agriculture

• Rice is the main crop. It is grown where the monsoon brings heavy rain or where irrigation is available, mostly in river plains and deltas.
• Why paddy suits monsoon Asia:
• Hot, wet summers.
• Flat, flooded alluvial plains (land built from river-laid silt and clay).

• Clayey soil that holds standing water.

• Main features:

• Holdings are very small because the population density is high.
• Family labour and hand work do most of the work, such as transplanting, weeding and harvesting. Machines are rarely used.
• Farmyard manure (animal dung and crop waste) keeps the soil fertile.

• Yield per unit area is high, but output per worker is low.

• Areas: the Ganga–Brahmaputra plains and delta, the coastal deltas of eastern India, Bangladesh, the Irrawaddy, Chao Phraya and Mekong valleys, the Red River delta of Vietnam, southern China, Java and the Philippines.

Type (ii): Intensive subsistence agriculture dominated by non-paddy crops

• Why not paddy: in some places relief (the shape of the land), climate (cold winters or low rain) or soil does not allow paddy. Farmers grow other crops instead, often with irrigation.

Region	Main crops
Northern China, Manchuria, North Korea, northern Japan	Wheat, soybean, barley, sorghum
Western Indo-Gangetic plains (Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh)	Wheat
Dry parts of western and southern India (Rajasthan, Deccan)	Millets (jowar, bajra, ragi)

• The fields are still small and the labour is still mostly family labour. Only the crop changes.
• Indian farming systems are covered in land-use-farming-systems.

4. Rice geography today

• Producers: China and India are the two largest rice producers.
• India's rice output reached a record 150.18 million tonnes in 2024-25, up from 137.83 million tonnes in 2023-24. India's total foodgrain output was a record 357.73 million tonnes (2024-25) [5].

• The Government of India says this made India the world's largest rice producer [5].

• Exporters: India is the largest rice exporter, with about 40% of world rice trade. Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan follow (verify current). The USA is also among the major exporters [4].

• Export rice comes from deltas and irrigated plains:

River system	Countries	Mouth
Ganga–Brahmaputra	India, Bangladesh	Bay of Bengal (world's largest delta, the Sundarbans)
Mekong	Rises in Tibet and flows through China, Myanmar/Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam	South China Sea (Mekong delta, Vietnam)
Chao Phraya	Thailand; formed where the Ping and Nan rivers join	Gulf of Thailand
Indus	Rises in Tibet near Lake Mansarovar and flows through India and Pakistan	Arabian Sea (irrigated Punjab–Sindh plains, basmati)

5. India's rice export curbs (2022–24) and world prices

• 2022: India changed its rice export policy. Broken rice exports were banned and a 20% export duty was put on non-basmati white rice [2][3].
• July 2023: non-basmati white rice was moved from "Free with export duty of 20%" to "Prohibited", with immediate effect. The aim was to keep enough rice at home at fair prices [2].
• 2024: India removed its export curbs on Indica white, parboiled and basmati rice. International rice prices eased in October 2024 as a result. FAO expected India's shipments to climb to a three-year high and competition among exporters to grow [4].
• Lesson: one country's policy can swing world rice prices because only a small share of world rice is traded. Most rice is eaten where it is grown, which is the subsistence pattern again.

Prelims Hooks

• Name–region pairs: Milpa – Mexico and Central America; Ladang – Indonesia and Malaysia; Conuco – Venezuela; Roca – Brazil; Masole – Central Africa; Ray – Vietnam; Jhum – north-east India.
• Trap: "Ladang" is Indonesia/Malaysia, not Vietnam. Vietnam's name is "Ray".
• Jhum cycle means the fallow interval before a patch is farmed again. A shrinking cycle causes land degradation.
• In shifting cultivation, a plot is abandoned after 3–5 years because its fertility falls. Fertility comes from the ash of burnt vegetation.
• Wet paddy intensive farming: yield per hectare is high, but output per worker is low. Fertility is kept with farmyard manure, not machines.
• Non-paddy intensive crops: wheat, soybean, barley and sorghum in N China, Manchuria, North Korea and N Japan; wheat in the western Indo-Gangetic plains; millets in dry W and S India.
• Rice exporters, highest to lowest: India (about 40% of trade) > Thailand > Vietnam > Pakistan (verify current).
• Chao Phraya rice delta – Thailand – Gulf of Thailand. Mekong delta – Vietnam – South China Sea.
• India's non-basmati white rice exports were "Prohibited" in July 2023 [2], and the curbs were removed in 2024 [4].
• India's rice output was a record 150.18 million tonnes in 2024-25 [5].

Mains Points

• Why shifting cultivation has a bleak future (GS-I/III):
• Population pressure shortens the jhum cycle → soil erosion on NE hill slopes, loss of forest and bamboo diversity [6].
• Forest laws and the spread of plantations and terraces are replacing it.

• Ways forward: longer fallows, agroforestry, terracing and secure land rights for tribal families.

• Density → intensity in monsoon Asia:

• High population and a monsoon climate lead to tiny holdings, multiple cropping and labour-heavy wet paddy.

• Land productivity is high, but labour productivity and incomes are low. Disguised unemployment (more people working on a farm than it needs) is common.

• Physical controls on the crop pattern:

• Rainfall, temperature, relief and soil decide whether paddy or non-paddy crops are grown. Examples: paddy in deltas, wheat in the Punjab plains, millets on the dry Deccan.

• Irrigation has pushed paddy into drier areas such as Punjab, which lowers groundwater.

• Food security and trade (GS-III):

• India's 2022–24 export curbs kept rice prices low at home but pushed up world prices. Easing the curbs in 2024 calmed world markets [2][4].
• India must balance farmers' income, domestic stocks and its image as a reliable exporter.