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Rural Economy (rural + economy)
Selected AbstractsReflexive Interdisciplinary Research: The Making of a Research Programme on the Rural Economy and Land UseJOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2006Philip Lowe Abstract This paper provides an account of the origins and formation of the UK Research Councils' Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) programme and its approach to promoting interdisciplinary working between social and natural scientists. The programme is set in the context of broader developments in science policy, including a policy discourse centred upon sustainable development and the knowledge economy and associated demands for greater accountability in science. Interdisciplinarity promises research that will be more relevant and responsive to public needs and concerns. In describing the provenance of the RELU programme, therefore, the paper seeks to lay out the different stages in its initiation and design to show how, to varying degrees, these were open to external scrutiny and influence. The process of developing the programme illustrates that it is not straightforward to make research agendas and funding more transparent and accountable. It also provides insights into the challenges that interdisciplinarity and accountability present to established science institutions. [source] Factories, Forests, Fields and Family: Gender and Neoliberalism in Extractive ReservesJOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 3 2007SUSANNA B. HECHT This paper explores the theoretical debates on extraction and development in Amazonia, and the emergence of extractive reserves (ERs) as a tropical development alternative. It reviews the role of women in Amazonian rural economies and then analyzes the (often invisible) tasks of women within the reserves through an analysis of the gender division of labour in the collecting and processing of non-timber forest products and agriculture. It then considers how lack of attention to rural women's labour obligations played out in a development project, Projeto Castanha, that began as an urban factory, but was later recast as a neoliberal decentralized processing and outsourcing programme. The project failed to appreciate the demands on, and the opportunity costs, of women's time and thus had very limited success as women withdrew their labour. The paper argues that there may be many more options for supporting extractive economies (and the women who work in them) in more peri-urban and village projects even though extractive reserves are valuable ecologically and socially in the regional economy. [source] Working to Make Interdisciplinarity Work: Investing in Communication and Interpersonal RelationshipsJOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2006Mariella Marzano Abstract In this paper, we apply qualitative methodologies to explore the practice of interdisciplinary research. The UK's Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) Programme aims to advance understanding of the challenges faced by rural areas through funding interdisciplinary research to inform future policy and practice on management choices for the countryside and rural economies. Addressing the challenges faced by rural areas often requires a combination of different perspectives, involving research to address subjects that may lie beyond the skills of individual researchers. An interdisciplinary approach requires the integration of both data/information and the experiences and perspectives of different people (natural/social scientists, local people and policy-makers). We focus here on the processes involved in making interdisciplinarity work, documenting the experiences, perceptions, ideas and concerns of researchers working in interdisciplinary projects (specifically two EU-funded projects but also the first wave of RELU projects). A key finding from this research is that interdisciplinarity requires conscious effort, time and resources for the development of interpersonal relationships to enhance effective communication and thus successful collaboration. [source] Assessing the Consequences of Converting to Organic AgricultureJOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2001Tim O'Riordan In the wake of the public controversy over genetically modified crops, organic production is sometimes hailed as the true "sustainable agriculture". Its advocates claim that it enriches biodiversity, increases soil "health" and provides more nutritious foods. This paper summarises the results of a three year, multi-disciplinary study of one major unit undergoing transition from non-organic to full organic status. Researchers examined whole farm nutrient budgets, insect diversity and the wider environmental economics of organic production compared with non-organic management. The result was a mid-term example of multi-disciplinary science, though some way short of interdisciplinary science. The evidence suggests that organic production can result in measurable environmental gains, which can be valued in economic terms. The full environmental account, however, remains elusive. Yet its significance could prove vital for the future of diversified rural economies in the UK Interdisciplinary minded agricultural and environmental economists are encouraged to extend this pilot initiative in the light of the important policy contribution that such additional research could provide for the improved valuation of sustainable agriculture. The authors conclude that there is a plausible case for an Organic Stewardship Scheme attached to the Rural Development Regulation. [source] Rural market imperfections and the role of institutions in collective action to improve markets for the poorNATURAL RESOURCES FORUM, Issue 1 2008Bekele Shiferaw Abstract Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have liberalized markets to improve efficiency and enhance market linkages for smallholder farmers. The expected positive response by the private sector in areas with limited market infrastructure has however been very limited. The functioning of markets is constrained by high transaction costs and coordination problems along the production-to-consumption value chain. New kinds of institutional arrangements are needed to reduce these costs and fill the vacuum left when governments withdrew from markets in the era of structural adjustments. One of these institutional innovations has been the strengthening of producer organizations and formation of collective marketing groups as instruments to remedy pervasive market failures in rural economies. The analysis presented here with a case study from eastern Kenya has shown that marketing groups pay 20,25% higher prices than other buyers to farmers while participation was also positively correlated with adoption of improved dryland legume varieties, crops not targeted by the formal extension system. However the effectiveness of marketing groups is undermined by external shocks and structural constraints that limit the volume of trade and access to capital and information, and require investments in complementary institutions and coordination mechanisms to exploit scale economies. Successful groups have shown high levels of collective action in the form of increased participatory decision making, member contributions and initial start-up capital. Failure to pay on delivery, resulting from lack of capital credit, is a major constraint that stifles competitiveness of marketing groups relative to other buyers. These findings call for interventions that improve governance and participation; mechanisms for improving access to operating capital; and effective strategies for risk management and enhancing the business skills of farmer marketing groups. [source] Sea louse control in Scotland, past and present,PEST MANAGEMENT SCIENCE (FORMERLY: PESTICIDE SCIENCE), Issue 6 2002Gordon H Rae Abstract Methods for farming the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L) in Scotland were developed at the Unilever Research Laboratory facility at Lochailort on the west coast of Scotland in the late 1960s. By the spring of 1972 a fledgling commercial company had been set up and Marine Harvest, as it was known, received its first year class of smolts at Lochailort. Sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis Krøyer) from passing wild fish infected the smolts but did not cause any significant damage until the summer of 1976 when intervention was required. The Scottish industry has since grown to become a vital source of employment for fragile rural economies and produced about 130,000 tonnes of salmon in 2000. This paper gives an overview of how fish welfare has been maintained by the development of treatments and management strategies aimed at minimising the impact of sea lice. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry [source] Discipline and Devolution: Constructions of Poverty, Race, and Criminality in the Politics of Rural Prison DevelopmentANTIPODE, Issue 3 2009Anne Bonds Abstract:, The soaring expansion of the US prison population is transforming the geographies of both urban and rural landscapes. As the trend in mass incarceration persists, depressed rural spaces are increasingly associated with rising prison development and the increasing criminalization of rural communities of disadvantage. Drawing on in-depth archival and interview research in rural communities in the Northwestern states of Idaho and Montana, this paper explores how cultural productions of poverty and exclusion intersect with rural prison development. I examine how representations of poverty and criminality are entangled with processes of economic restructuring and the localization of economic development and social welfare. I explore the ways in which the rural prison geography of the Northwest is linked to the material and discursive construction of those in poverty and how these narratives are produced through local relations of race, ethnicity, and class. I suggest that the mobilization of these constructions legitimates rural prison expansion, increasingly punitive social and criminal justice policies, and the retrenchment of racialized and classed inequality. Further, I argue that these discursive imaginations of the poor work to obscure the central dynamics producing poverty under the neoliberal restructuring of rural economies and governance. [source] Reflections on Latin American Rural Studies in the Neoliberal Globalization Period: A New Rurality?DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 6 2008Cristóbal Kay ABSTRACT This article explores the emergence over the last decade of a new approach to rural development studies in Latin America known as the ,new rurality'. The various interpretations and ambiguities of this approach as well as the ensuing debates are discussed. Analysis focuses on four major transformations in the rural economy and society which are usually highlighted by the ,new ruralists'. These changes are interpreted as arising from the region's neoliberal shift and its closer insertion into the global system. A novel distinction is made between reformist and communitarian proposals for a new rurality. The merits as well as the limitations of this new approach to rural studies are examined. [source] Agricultural Productivity Growth and Poverty AlleviationDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 4 2001Xavier Irz How important is agricultural growth to poverty reduction? This article first sets out the theoretical reasons for expecting agricultural growth to reduce poverty. Several plausible and strong arguments apply - including the creation of jobs on the land, linkages from farming to the rest of the rural economy, and a decline in the real cost of food for the whole economy - but the degree of impact is in all cases qualified by particular circumstances. Hence, the article deploys a cross-country estimation of the links between agricultural yield per unit area and measures of poverty. This produces strong confirmation of the hypothesised linkages. It is unlikely that there are many other development interventions capable of reducing the numbers in poverty so effectively. [source] Rural Europe reshaped: the economic transformation of upland regions, 1850,20001ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 2 2009FERNANDO COLLANTES Agriculture is no longer the main sector in the economy of rural Europe. Based on a comparative analysis of nine upland areas from five different countries (Scotland, Switzerland, France, Italy, and Spain), this article argues that, contrary to the claims of most social science work on ,rural restructuring', the decline of agriculture in the rural economy should be understood from a long-term perspective and in relation to European industrialization, rather than as a recent process linked to postmodern dynamics. In fact, widely diverging paths of rural change during industrialization similarly imply occupational change. [source] EU Enlargement to Turkey?EUROCHOICES, Issue 1 2005Rural Areas: EU Erweiterung um die Türkei?, The Challenges Anead for Agriculture Summary EU Enlargement to Turkey? The Challenges Ahead for Agriculture and Rural Areas In December 2004 the European Council agreed that accession negotiations with Turkey could begin in October 2005. Although the Copenhagen political criteria have been decisive so far, the criteria relating to the functioning of markets and ability to implement EU legislation will weigh heavily in the negotiations. Despite recent policy reforms, Turkey's agriculture still enjoys levels of protection similar or higher than those of the EU, but its gross value added per worker is relatively very low. One third of Turkey's employment is in agriculture, where most farms are small. The animal health situation is far below the standard achieved in the EU. Food supply chains are fragmented and inefficient. To survive and compete within the single market of the EU, the agricultural and food sectors must undergo deep structural change, which will have far-reaching economic and social repercussions. Projections according to current policy trends show that Turkey could take over one-third of the total cohesion budget allocation. However, the scalingdown or delaying of budget transfers would be short-sighted. If the EU accepts Turkey as a member, it would be in the interest of the EU as a whole that Turkey's economy - and especially its backward rural economy - should embark on a sustainable growth path as soon as possible. Elargir l'UE à la Turquie ? Les défis en perspective pour l'agriculture et les zones rurales. En decembre 2004, le Conseil de l'Union europ6enne a decide douvrir des negociations d'adhesion avec la Turquie en octobre 2005. A la difference de ce qui s'est passe jusqu'ici, le fonctionnement des marches et la capacite a mettre en vigueur l'acquis communautaire seront les crittres principaux, a la place des crittres politiques de Copenhague. Malgrk des reformes politiques recentes, l'agriculture turque profite toujours d'un taw de protection extkrieure analogue a celui de I'UE ou plus Clevi Cependant, sa valeur ajoutee brute par actifest relativement trks basse. Le tiers des emplois en Turquie se trouve dans le secteur agricole, oi,la plupart des exploitations sont de peute taille. La situation sanitaire du cheptel se situe bien au-dessous du niveau de I'UE. Les filieres agro-alimentaires sont fragmentees et peu efficaces. Pour être en mesure de faire face a la concurrence du Marche unique europken, les secteurs agricoles et alimentaires en Turquie devront subir une restructuration profonde, laquelle aura des consequences economiques et sociales de grande envergure. Des projections basees sur les tendances politiques actuelles montrent que la Turquie pourrait bkneficier de plus du tiers des fonds de cohesion de I'UE. Ceci dit, une decision de diminuer ou de dfikrer les transferts budgetaires serait faire preuve d'un manque de prevoyance. Si I'UE accepte la Turquie comme membre, il serait dans I'intkr8t de l'ensemble de 1'Union que I'Cconomie turque - et surtout son economie rurale arrierke - s'engage aussitbt que possible sur un sentier de croissance rapide et durable. EU Erweiterung um die Tükei? Herausforderungen für die Landwirtschaft und ländliche Räume Im Dezember 2004 hat der Europasche Rat beschlossen, dass im Oktober 2005 die Beitnttsverhandlungen mit der Turkei beginnen konnen Auch wenn die Kopenhagener politischen Kriterien bisher entscheidend waren, werden die Kriterien hinsichtlich der Funktionsfhhigkeit der Markte und die Fahigkeit, die EU Gesetzgebung lmplementieren zu konnen, besonderes Gewicht haben. Trotz der letzten Politikreformen 1st die Agrarprotektion in der Turkei gleich hoch oder hoher als in der EU, aber die turkische Bruttowertschopfung le Arbeitskraft ist relativ sehr klein Ein Dnttel der turklschen Arbeitskrafte sind in der Landmrtschaft beschaftigt und die meisten Betriebe sind klein Die Gesundheit der Tiere 1st weit unter den Niveau der EU Die Nahrungsmittel-Zuheferungskette 1st klem struktunert und ineffizient Der Agrar- und Ernahrungssektor kann im Gemeinsamen Markt nur dann uberleben und wettbewerbsfahig sein, wenn em intensiver Strukturwandel mit weit reichenden okonomischen und sozialen Wirkungen einsetzt. Projektionen der gegenwartigen Politikentwicklungen zeigen, dass die Turkei uber ein Dnttel der Mittel des Kohasionsfonds erhalten wurde. Doch wurde die Kurzung oder Veaogerung der Finanzhilfen kurzsichtig sen Wenn dre EU die Turkei als Mitglied akzeptiert, 1st es im Interesse der EU insgesamt, dass die Turkei und insbesondere ihre ruckstandige Agramirtschaft so schnell wie moglich auf einen stabden Wachstumspfad kommt. [source] Rural Economic Development: A Review of the Literature from Industrialized EconomiesGEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 6 2010Laura Ryser Over the past 30 years, accelerating change has been one of the defining attributes of rural landscapes around the world. In response, there has been an increasing volume of rural economic development research and public/policy interest in that research. The purpose of this review article is not to provide a ,state of the literature' summary, but rather to highlight thematic directions, opportunities, and trends in the rural economic development literature over the past decade in industrialized economies. We review many of the longstanding research themes in rural economic development research: social and economic restructuring, barriers and challenges to economic development, community economic development, community capacity, governance, and policies and programs. We also explore a range of research issues that have (re-) emerged over the past decade focusing on new approaches to understanding rural change and the deployment of development strategies in the context of the new rural economy. [source] Class and the Politics of Participatory Rural Transformation in West Bengal: An Alternative to World Bank OrthodoxyJOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 3 2007SUDIPTA BHATTACHARYYAArticle first published online: 3 JUN 200 Based on a primary field survey and secondary sources of information, this study analyzes the West Bengal experience of participatory rural transformation in relation to the changing class structure in a differentiated rural economy, the rise in class-consciousness among the rural poor and the participation of different classes in the political process of decision-making. Utsa Patnaik's (1987) labour exploitation criterion is used in order to rank rural households in class terms, alongside the standard acreage groupings. This study strongly refutes the neo-liberal (World Bank) idea of social capital and civil society as sources of ,people's participation'. It is argued that ,people's participation' is a meaningless concept, since the ,people' as a category includes different classes with conflicting interests. Though subordinate classes in West Bengal have achieved a higher level of class consciousness than in the past, and have resisted extra economic coercion, and while their political participation has risen, their involvement at the grass roots level of administrative decision-making is very weak. Panchayat Raj has so far failed to initiate a second phase of institutional reform in West Bengal, encompassing education, gender justice and above all the co-operative movement. This partial failure is the outcome of short-term electoral benefit being given priority over and so undermining class struggle. [source] Continuity and Change: Some Observations on the Landscape of Agricultural Labourers in North Bihar, IndiaJOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 4 2004PRAVEEN JHA This paper is an attempt to catalogue and analyse the changes over two decades in the world of agricultural labourers in a backward region in India. It is primarily based on a series of field visits to two villages in Purnia district, located in the north-eastern part of Bihar. Changes in the living conditions of labourers are obviously connected to developments in the rural economy of the region and there are important linkages with developments elsewhere, including changes in the overall macro-economic policy regime. An attempt is made to trace these. Agricultural wage workers in the surveyed region are extremely poor by any reckoning, although a few of them have made some progress through state-sponsored programmes and migration. These developments have also contributed significantly to altering the relations of dominance and subordination, thus creating greater elbow-room for labourers. However, it is important not to overstate these small gains and there are serious doubts as to whether they can be sustained. It appears that some of the material correlates of labourers' well-being in the surveyed region are being affected adversely by the currently ascendant neoliberal policy regime. There are no signs of the emergence of mechanisms that might imply sustained significant improvements in the very fragile life and work conditions of these labourers. [source] Mulberry nutrient management for silk production in Hubei Province of ChinaJOURNAL OF PLANT NUTRITION AND SOIL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2009Fang Chen Abstract The silk industry is important for south China's rural economy. Leaves of mulberry (Morus spp.) are used for silkworm production. Hubei province is one of the main silk-producing provinces in China. The objectives of this research were to survey the fertilization practices in the mulberry-producing regions in the province and to determine the best nutrition-management practice for mulberry plantations. A survey and a series of field experiments with N, P, K, and micronutrients were conducted from 2001 to 2002. In addition, a silkworm-growth experiment was also conducted by feeding leaves harvested from various fertilization treatments. The results indicate that poor soil fertility and unbalanced fertilization were the main factors limiting mulberry-leaf yield and quality in Hubei province. Nitrogen fertilization of mulberry has reached a high level (454,kg ha,1 y,1) in Hubei province, but P- and K-fertilization rates have not been matched with N-fertilization rates as farmers are not aware of the significance of P and K. Balanced fertilization showed positive nutrient interactions with respect to mulberry yield and quality. Potassium application increased yield and quality (protein and sugar concentration) of mulberry leaves. Silkworm growth and cocoon quality were improved when silkworms were fed with the leaves derived from K-fertilized plants in comparison with those taken from control plots. Application of Mg, S, and B also significantly improved leaf sugar, essential and total amino acid concentrations, but did not increase leaf yield significantly. It is concluded that a fertilizer dose of 375,kg N ha,1, 66,kg P ha,1, and 125,kg K ha,1 is suitable for the cultivation of mulberry in the Hubei province along with Mg, S, and B, wherever necessary, for the improvement of yield and quality of mulberry leaves. [source] Forests, marketization, livelihoods and the poor in the Lao PDRLAND DEGRADATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2006J. D. Rigg Abstract The Lao PDR is making the transition from subsistence to cash, and command to market. Rural communities are being drawn ever more tightly into the embrace of the market economy and of the central state. The construction of roads, schools and health centres, the provision of credit and new crops and technologies, and the arrival of traders and the panoply of the consumer economy are all, in their different ways, remoulding rural economy and society. This paper looks at one aspect of this multi-stranded process of agrarian transformation: the role and place of forests and, in particular, non-timber forest products, in rural people's lives and livelihoods. The paper highlights the contradictory and uneven livelihood-eroding/enhancing effects of these transformations. In many upland areas of Laos livelihoods are being squeezed from ,below' by environmental degradation and from ,above' by the operation of government policies and, more generally, by evolving market relations. While market pessimists see market integration as a largely destructive process, the paper highlights the opportunities that market integration can provide through diversification and livelihood reorientation. The challenge is that these opportunities are unequally available and are likely to promote social differentiation. Some households find themselves in a position to embrace new opportunities while others are forced to continue to rely on a declining and degrading forest resource. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Rice versus fish revisited: On the integrated management of floodplain resources in BangladeshNATURAL RESOURCES FORUM, Issue 2 2004Bhavani Shankar Abstract Disproportionately little attention has been paid to the dry season trade-off between rice and (inland capture) fish production on the floodplains of Bangladesh, compared to the same trade-off during the flood season. As the rural economy grows increasingly dominated by dry-season irrigated rice production, and floodplain land and water come under ever-increasing pressure during the dry winter months, there is an urgent need to focus attention on these dry months that are so critical to the survival and propagation of the floodplain resident fish, and to the poor people that depend on these fish for their livelihood. This article examines three important dry-season natural resource constraints to floodplain livelihoods in Bangladesh, and finds a common factor at the heart of all three: rice cultivation on lands at low and very low elevations. The article articulates the system interlinkages that bind these constraints and the long-run trend towards irrigated rice cropping on lower-lying lands, and suggests a management approach based on locally tailored strategies to arrest this trend. Apart from its direct relevance to the floodplains of Bangladesh, which support more than 100 million people, these lessons have relevance for river floodplain systems elsewhere in the developing world, notably the Mekong Delta. [source] Transport and the rural economy: Institutions and institutional change in Ambeso Village, IndonesiaASIA PACIFIC VIEWPOINT, Issue 2 2007William SabandarArticle first published online: 20 JUL 200 Abstract: This paper is concerned with the interaction between transport improvements and the rural economy. An institutional approach, based primarily on the new institutionalism theory, was used as the theoretical basis for the analysis. Using the evidence from Ambeso Village of Tana Toraja District, Indonesia, the paper examines the way transport improvements have been introduced and provided opportunities for positive change as well as individual responses to these opportunities. The paper ends by emphasising the role of institutions in the interaction between transport and the rural economy and the need for transport policy and research to transcend its traditional boundaries and address the complexities of institutions and institutional change. [source] Vulnerability of Vietnamese Elderly to Poverty: Determinants and Policy Implications,ASIAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 4 2009Long T. Giang I32 We identify determinants of elderly poverty in Vietnam using household survey data from 2004. The elderly living in urban and rural areas face significantly different conditions. Some factors impact poverty in both urban and rural areas (e.g. age, marital status, region and remittance receipts), some factors are insignificant in both areas (e.g. living arrangements and household head characteristics) and some factors have a differing impact in the two areas (e.g. gender, ethnicity, and household composition and size). With these findings, we formulate policy priorities, including reducing regional disparities, promoting the rural economy and reforming social security. [source] Socioeconomic Changes and the Decline in Poverty: A View from Three Villages in the Philippines, 1985,1997,ASIAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 4 2005Jonna P. Estudillo O10; O15 The present paper examines socioeconomic changes and decline in rural poverty using a panel dataset collected in the Philippine villages in 1985, 1993 and 1997. The most important finding is the transition of the rural economy away from a regime of low nonfarm income to a regime of high nonfarm income accompanied by a marked decline in poverty. The relative contribution of access to land on rural poverty reduction declined, whereas the relative contribution of human capital, more importantly represented by college schooling, increased over time. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||