Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 5
RURAL LIVELIHOODS:
INTERPLAY BETWEEN
FARM ACTIVITIES, NON-FARM ACTIVITIES
AND THE RESOURCE BASE
M. KUIPER, G. MEIJERINK AND D. EATON
International Trade and Development, Agricultural Economics Research Institute
(LEI), Wageningen UR
e-mail: marijke.kuiper@wur.nl
Despite ongoing urbanization, over 70% of the world's poor are located in rural
areas (IFAD 2001). Agriculture plays an important part in their livelihoods. Rural
households play a central role in realizing policy objectives. Production decisions at
farm household level determine the current availability of agricultural produce (food
security objectives; Roetter and Van Keulen 2007), as well as future production
potentials (sustainability objectives; Verhagen et al. 2007). The majority of the poor
are furthermore located in the rural areas of developing countries. Rural households
are, thus, also key to poverty reduction policies.
Farm households, however, do not live of farming alone. Parallel to the develop-
ments in agricultural science, the view on rural households has changed in the past
decades. Analyses of single production systems have given way to a view on rural
households as diversified enterprises. Rural household enterprises are not limited to
the agricultural sector. Non-farm activities play an important role in income of these
households all across the world, even in regions commonly thought of as subsistence-
oriented, such as Sub-Saharan Africa. In a rare worldwide comparison of the
importance of non-farm income in developing countries, Africa ranked first with
42% of total rural income, followed by Latin America (40%) and Asia (32%)
(Reardon et al. 1998).
Rural areas play a prime role in two of the Millennium Development Goals:
reducing poverty and hunger and ensuring environmental sustainability. The omni-
presence of non-farm income in rural areas implies that any policy aimed at realizing
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