Subsistence agriculture is self-sufficiency Self-sufficiency refers to the state of not requiring any outside aid, support, or interaction, for survival; it is therefore a type of personal or collective autonomy. On a large scale, a totally self-sufficient economy that does not trade with the outside world is called an autarky farming in which farmers grow only enough food to feed their families. The typical subsistence farm has a range of crops and animals needed by the family to eat during the year. Planting decisions are made with an eye toward what the family will need during the coming year, rather than market prices. Tony Waters^[1] writes: "Subsistence peasants are people who grow what they eat, build their own houses, and live without regularly making purchases in the marketplace."

Subsistence grain-growing agriculture (predominantly wheat Wheat is a grass, originally from the Fertile Crescent region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize (784 million tons) and rice (651 million tons). Wheat grain is a staple food used to make flour for leavened, flat and steamed and barley Barley is a cereal grain derived from the annual grass Hordeum vulgare) first emerged during the Neolithic Revolution The Neolithic Revolution was the first agricultural revolution—the transition from hunting and gathering communities and bands, to agriculture and settlement. Archaeological data indicate that various forms of domestication of plants and animals arose independently in at least seven or eight separate locales worldwide, with the earliest known when humans began to settle in the Nile The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world, Euphrates The Euphrates ( juːˈfreɪtiːz ) is the longest and historically one of the most important rivers of Southwest Asia. Together with the Tigris, the Euphrates is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia. The river – originating in the Taurus Mountains – flows through Syria and Iraq to join the Tigris in the Shatt al-Arab, which flows into, and Indus River The Indus River