This project will allow a graduate student in anthropology to travel to a rural area of Jamaica to study how rural farm families' production of market crops impacts upon their subsistence. The researcher will analyze the distribution of resources in a sample of households and consult official data to assess the impact of commercial production and varying economic and social strategies of families upon their subsistence and nutritional as well as economic well being. This research is important because the rural sector of poor, developing countries is rapidly being integrated into the national if not the international economy. Improved knowledge of the survival strategies of the rural poor can help identify sources of problems in rural areas and can help planners to create policies to ameliorate rural poverty and unrest.
