Subsistence farming systems: Primitive and intensive
Subsistence systems focus primarily on meeting household nutritional requirements with minimal surplus.
Core subsistence classifications:
- Primitive subsistence farming: Characterized by slash-and-burn shifting cultivation (Jhum) using basic manual tools (hoes, digging sticks) and natural rainfall, common in tribal hill tracts.
- Intensive subsistence farming: Practiced in densely populated fertile areas (such as the Indo-Gangetic plains) with high labor input, intensive multiple cropping, and irrigation on small fragmented holdings.
- Mixed subsistence farming: Integration of small-scale food crop cultivation with backyard milch animals (cows, buffaloes, goats) to support family income.
- Input characteristics: High family labor engagement, reliance on organic farmyard manure, and limited mechanical tractorization.
Commercial, plantation and specialized farming systems
Commercial systems utilize modern agricultural technology to produce commodities for domestic and global markets:
Commercial classifications:
- Commercial grain farming: Large-scale cultivation of single crops like wheat, rice, or maize utilizing tractors, combine harvesters, and chemical fertilizers.
- Plantation agriculture: Monoculture of high-value perennial cash crops (tea, coffee, rubber, coconut, sugarcane, banana) across large contiguous estates with integrated processing facilities.
- Dairy and livestock farming: Specialized commercial dairy farms maintaining high-yielding cattle and buffaloes with mechanized milking and fodder production.
- Commercial horticulture and floriculture: Greenhouse and open-field cultivation of fruits, exotic vegetables, and cut flowers under precision drip fertigation.
Sustainable alternatives: Organic and natural farming
With increasing focus on soil ecological health and chemical residue mitigation, certified organic farming and Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF / Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati) are expanding. Supported by the National Centre for Organic and Natural Farming (NCONF), these systems substitute chemical fertilizers and synthetic pesticides with bio-inputs, crop rotation, and vermicomposting.
Official source
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Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) ↗Related on KisanPe
Common questions
What are the two major divisions of farming systems in India?
The two primary divisions are subsistence farming (producing food for family consumption) and commercial farming (producing crops for market sale and profit).
What is intensive subsistence farming?
It is a farming system practiced on small, densely populated landholdings using high labor and irrigation inputs to produce multiple crops annually.
What defines plantation agriculture?
Plantation agriculture is the commercial single-crop cultivation of cash crops like tea, coffee, or rubber over large estates linked with on-site processing.
General guidance, not personal advice. For your farm, ask your local Krishi Vigyan Kendra or agriculture officer.
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