The world grain situation and shortages of fertilizer place the agricultural industry even more to the forefront of policy and planning in low-income tropical farming areas. Planning must be positively directed toward eliminating the major constraint of inaccessibility to markets. The narrowing of alternative agricultural opportunities as accessibility decreases is indicated for a sample of farm-family households; low-income farmers isolated from the services sector arc particularly susceptible to the constraint of ‘scarcity of season’ which in turn is aggravated by the economic cost of ill-health when this coincides with the period of heaviest agricultural work. The problem which arises is one in which farmers rely on topping-up farm income with income from non-farm activities. Unless a two-to-threefold net income over any other combination of income-earning opportunities can be assured, small-scale producers largely persist in treating farming simply as a way of life by which the subsistence needs of the family can be met without recourse to new input forms.