I'm a subsistence farmer, get me out of here!

Well it should come as no surprise that the town of Old Fadama is preferable to an old mud hut in the middle of nowhere for many in Ghana. Yet there are some NGO's who would have people stay in the most primitive and hopeless rural grind. Bring on the wonderful trappings of modernity all round!

After spending Xmas in Zanzibar, we saw how people struggle on subsistence farming & want & deserve much better. A great film, thanks.

It is amazing that a shanty town represents development but its true. When you think about social interaction and all that offers a shanty town does represent the trappings of development, not that we should accept that as good enough. We haven't endured subsistence farming really for two hundred years and noone today should have to. I agree living in the coutryside and growing your own is great if it is matter of choice and you have modern amenities. Development has given the free time to think and to be romanticise even. Great short, well done plus love the title.

Cities are the way forward. Nearly two hundred years ago, Marx was talking about how capitalism, for all its faults, had rescued people from 'the idiocy of rural life'. While life in these newly emerging cities is tough, at least there is the possibility of meeting a wider variety of people, accessing shared resources, building proper homes with electricity and mains running water. There's nothing glamourous about contemporary rural life in the developing world.

Good point, well made. More of the same, please!

Loved this film, laughed out loud at the title and the film didn't disappoint. What isn't funny is that this film is necessary as there are people out there who actually think this kind of life (albeit with a little bit more) is the way forward! So keeping people on the land and poor is justifiable. I don't think so. Get this film out and about please.

Love it once more WORLDwrite, i have watched the other four films in this series too and they are great. Your titles are so good, the series 'Pricking the Missionary Position' is certainly what is needed. This film is excellent and tells the obvious truth that people want to move away from the land to get the benefits of development. Anybody who stands in their way should swap with them.

The wests love affair with the quaint life where the poor are just sauntering along in the daily lives - mending, cooking, farming, herding, using their time to congregate together in harmony is a marriage made in hell. This used to be said of-course about the poor villagers centuries ago and painters would show us in their work their idyllilc lazy life out in the open amongst nature. Your film thankfully shows the harsh hard life it really is and shows the ambitions of people living this on the land up against nature 24/7 to GET OUT. I hope this film changes minds.

Great work on part of the WORLDwrite team, always on the cutting edge of issues concerning the developing world. This is about Ghana, but represents the reality throughout poor countries in Africa, as all those who have travelled a bit will know. The respect that can be perceived through the film, the words used, the images, is the touch that distinguishes WORLDwrite. Gook luck to you all. Grégoire

This is such a crucial message that needs to be heard more often. How could anyone feel romantic towards the life people are living as subsistence farmers in the developing world? It's not only that it's a life we would never wish upon our worst enemy, but that nowadays we hear people saying we actually need to DEFEND these 'ways of life'. Poverty and toil are not choices, nor are they part of a cultural tradition; they are nightmarish obstacles to human progress in poorer parts of the world.

For those who truly feel that subsistence life is something worth defending, I suggest they do a "life swap" with a subsistence farmer to see just how wrong they really are!

Excellent short film that needs to be seen by as many people as possible. It really highlights the misery of the subsistence farming life. When faced with the better option of a life in somewhere like Old Fadama, it's no wonder people move there. Serious development has to happen, people should not be living in this way, anyone who thinks otherwise needs to watch this documentary.

Great film! Where can I see the full version?

It's a great title that leads to a great film. Other comments have the right idea - people who advocate subsistence farming as a solution to anything should be made to swap and see how they like it. Not one bit I'm sure, it would be 5 mins before they came running back to houses that don't wash away, electricity and supermarkets. Oh and of course not having to do back breaking work all day just to survive. This isn't life and things need to change. This film needs to be shown to as big an audience as possible. Yet again, great stuff from Worldwrite.

This film deserves to be broadcast worldwide to let everyone know what's happening in the developing world.

This definitely should be on tv and seen by as many people as possible to know of the reality of life in Africa.

excellent alternative to what we normally see about what people want or 'need' in the developing world. Why would anyone want any less of the opportunities that we have?

I like the way that this challenges many standard perceptions people have - lets get it out there to start a good debate.

I hope this gets the exposure it deserves.

Subsistence way of life makes us happy and we want to be part of that life in developed country. But did you try asking Gannians or Africans or any poor farmer in third world? World write did. To our supprise after wathing the film I do not wanted to be living in subsistence. The poor people in the film is desperte to live even in a worst shanty town. Subsitence way of life think twice.

This is one of the most important films I've seen in a while. We have to question the so many romantic ideas floating about and WORLDWrite does this. Fantastic but why is there not more of this?

It's ridiculous that people in the west decide that it is best to keep people living in these conditions. They have the right to development just the same as we do. Everyone wants to make their life better, why would poor people think any differently. Good film!

I really enjoyed this film. It seems obvious to me now that development even in the form of shanty towns is much better than the life stuck subsistence farming however so many people have a romanticised view of the farming life. Get this film into school geography lessons asap!

I love the countryside becouse I grew up in the city, but I have the choice of where to live, and can even more country. Poor people in subsahran Africa are denied the choice and clearly the countryside does not look so beautiful when you are comletely dependent on it for survival. Subsistence life belongs to history. Development means choice and this film shows people in Ghana need a lot more of it.

It?s a great film. While environmentalists, and many advocates of organic farming, think that subsistence agriculture is not only sustainable but even desirable, WORLDwrite?s film challenges the romantic notion of the bucolic life and shows how in fact there is nothing romantic about mindless toil and hours of bent over labour thanks to the lack of development. The idea of sustainable development only supports the environmentalists? preoccupation of preserving the ecosystem, where the demands, needs and aspirations of people stuck in poverty do not figure.

More grease to your elbow for your good works concerning the developing countries you understand them and know what they want to much! To the people who thinks living a subsistence life is good and the peolpe there are happy, should go and stay there for just a week and see how is it like. I define poverty as a disease i don't think anybody wuold like to be poor by choice. They also want a better living even what the west take for granted.

Sadly concernworldwide's response simply says we are helping rural subsistence farmers be rural subsistence farmers. This is classic ! Unfortunately It represents the typical poverty of ambition reflected in many Western NGO programmes, however well meaning. If on the other hand you ask people what their aspirations are and also recognise they are people no different from you or I then it is hardly surprising that more hoes, seeds, chickens and toil are not on their wish list. No country has ever become rich staying on the land either. Just look at the emmerging economies: China, India, Brazil they are not making it with hoes! The redefinition of development to mean simply getting by-on the land- does our peers a huge disservice.