Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
these two Millennium Goals needs to look beyond households' agricultural activities.
Non-farm activities play a prime role, directly by contributing significantly to household
income and indirectly by shaping agricultural activities with implications for
sustainability. However, the effect can be positive or negative. Pressure on natural
resources may be reduced when households have alternative sources of income
(Bahamondes 2003). Non-farm income may also (partially) be invested in sustainable
agricultural practices. Soil nutrient mining is a key issue in the African context (see
Verhagen et al. 2007). Inorganic fertilizers are an important source of nutrients.
These fertilizers require cash which may be generated by non-farm activities. Non-
farm activities would then contribute to sustainability. In the Asian context, excessive
use of pesticides and herbicides is a prime concern (see Verhagen et al. 2007). Farm
households that are engaged in non-farm activities could replace hand weeding by
herbicides. In that situation, non-farm activities would threaten the sustainability of
agricultural practices.
Regarding sustainable agricultural development, the DLO research programme
International Cooperation (DLO-IC) has reflected the shift from a pure technical to a
broader perspective on rural households' activities and their institutional environment.
Within DLO-IC, research on poverty reduction has tended to focus on agricultural
technologies and on the impact of (poor) households' land use decisions on natural
resources to safeguard productivity. So far, no explicit attention has been devoted to
interactions between non-farm and farm activities. Our objective is to analyse the
role of non-farm activities in rural households' livelihood strategies and their impli-
cations for the sustainability of natural resource use. Based on existing literature, we
develop a conceptual framework for analysing links between non-farm activities and
agriculture. The conceptual framework indicates the importance of local conditions
and changes over time in the links between farm and non-farm activities. This
implies that analyses and policies need to be location- and time-specific. Using a
unique household-level dataset pulled together from different DLO-IC projects and
covering different regions in Africa and Asia, we analyse the importance of non-
farm income for households, as well as the distribution of income across households.
Based on the agricultural activities of households, we assess the potential for forward
and backward production linkages. We then analyse the impact of non-farm income
on sustainability of agricultural activities. We conclude by deriving implications for
policies aimed at reducing poverty and promoting sustainable rural development
through promoting both agricultural and non-agricultural household activities.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
In the literature, different terms (off-farm, non-farm, non-agricultural, non-
traditional) are used interchangeably to denote non-farm income. We, therefore, first
need to define what we mean by non-farm income. Barrett et al. (2001) propose
a three-way classification based on (i) sectors as defined in national accounts;
(ii) location distinguishing at-home, local away-from-home and distant away from-
home (domestic or foreign migration); (iii) self-employment or wage labour . Using
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