Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
activities and agricultural production decisions. The (preliminary) conclusions
suggest that non-farm activities are of key importance for rural household decision-
making and do influence future production potential.
Non-farm activities play an important role in reducing rural poverty, and affect
agricultural production decisions. Analyses of investments in farm production
suggest that non-farm income is generally not correlated with expenditures on
external inputs or with fertilizer use. In the African context, from which the majority
of our data originate, soil mining is a major issue, but increased non-farm activities
and associated income do not seem to have an impact on the sustainability of soil
fertility management. Apparently, income from non-farm activities is neither invested
in agriculture, nor in ensuring future production. We do find that being located
nearer to an urban centre, which increases the scope for non-farm employment,
reduces the likelihood of using external inputs in general and inorganic fertilizer in
particular. This suggests that the additional income derived from non-farm activities
is not used to substitute the labour withdrawn from agriculture.
The analysis has also made clear that farm households do not necessarily invest
in the continuation of farming, but may instead focus on increasing the opportunities
of (young) household members to find non-farm employment. Non-farm employment
thus has become an opportunity for diversification. However, non-farm employment
may only pay slightly better than farming, fill the gap of a non-productive farming
period, or absorb hidden unemployment within the agricultural sector. When non-
farm employment is not very profitable or secure, as in most of Sub-Saharan Africa,
people are not likely to give up their land. This means that it cannot be expected that
the growing importance of non-farm employment will lead to a movement out of
agriculture, an increase in land availability and/or the possibility for remaining farms
to expand, as has happened in for instance Europe. One of the key elements is
understanding the institutional setting in which households operate. Secure land
ownership, allowing the emergence of land rental markets, for example, may
facilitate a transition out of agriculture by providing an option to return to farming.
Thus, what happens to the agricultural sector depends on the profitability of non-
farm employment
and
on the institutional setting.
The results of our analyses highlight furthermore that no one-size-fits-all policy
exists that provides a path out of poverty. Policies need to be targeted, based on
geographical features (extended beyond agro-ecological zoning to include access to
non-agricultural employment), and individual endowments (education, skills). This
means that specific policy recommendations are required for each social group being
targeted. It may well be that a specific group, although living in a peri-urban area
and, thus, close to an urban centre in spatial terms, does not have access to
opportunities due to social restrictions. The group is then, in practice, remote from
these opportunities due to social barriers. The analysis of the data shows that this
group may well consist of women, who have fewer opportunities for non-farm
employment and who become the
de facto
farmers (i.e., managers of the agricultural
enterprise). Social barriers include lower education levels, responsibilities for taking
care of the household (thus, binding them to the farm), and/or cultural constraints
(e.g., it not being acceptable that women travel alone).
Search WWH ::
Custom Search