Showing papers on "Subsistence agriculture published in 2002"

Effective seasonal climate forecast applications: examining constraints for subsistence farmers in Zimbabwe

Abstract: For the last decade, climate scientists have improved their skill at predicting seasonal rainfall patterns in many parts of the world based on observations of sea surface temperatures. Making forecasts useful to decision-makers, especially subsistence farmers in developing countries, remains a significant challenge. In this paper, we discuss a set of six constraints limiting the usefulness of forecasts: credibility, legitimacy, scale, cognitive capacity, procedural and institutional barriers, and available choices. We identify how these constraints have in fact limited forecast use so far, and propose means of overcoming them. We then discuss a pilot project in Zimbabwe, where we test our proposals. Drawing from two years’ observation, we offer lessons to guide future efforts at effective forecast communication.

Brokered livelihoods: Debt, Labour Migration and Development in Tribal Western India

Abstract: Seasonal labour migration is an increasingly important aspect of rural livelihoods in tribal areas of Western India. Such migration can no longer be viewed merely as an adjunct to an essentially agrarian way of life, but has to be seen as integral to the coping, survival and livelihood strategies of tribal farming families. Rural to urban migration is often viewed as a consequence of environmental crisis in which migrants as 'ecological refugees' [Gadgil and Guha 1995] are forcibly displaced by processes of deforestation, soil erosion, water scarcity, land fragmentation, declining agricultural productivity and population increase. While increasing pressure on a fragile resource base has indeed contributed to widespread failure to meet subsistence needs among tribal households, the research discussed in this study shows that the forces leading to migration are as much to do with the social relations of dependency and indebtedness which subsistence failure entails, as with ecological decline. The problem is...

Household livelihoods in semi-arid regions: options and constraints

Abstract: The overall aim of this study was to explore what the development community can do, or facilitate, to significantly improve livelihoods in semi-arid systems.The authors based their analysis on two case-study sites in the communal lands of southern Zimbabwe. The main tool was a detailed livelihood questionnaire, supplemented by participatory appraisal and observation, action research, biophysical analysis and systems modelling. Most households rely on cash and subsistence income from a number of sources - dryland crop production, gardening, livestock production, woodland activities, wage or home industries and remittances/gifts. Marked wealth differentiation occurs, with local people recognising the different wealth groupings largely on the basis of various capital assets. One factor driving differentiation is whether a household has access to remittance income. Elements of change can be identified in numerous aspects of the capital assets and the livelihood strategies. The authors suggest that there are some key drivers of change, namely: (a) rainfall, (b) macro-economic changes, (c) changing institutional arrangements and social processes, and (d) demographic processes and HIV/AIDS. The overall conclusion is that there are very few options for significantly improving livelihoods in semi-arid regions and that the poverty alleviation targets set by the international community are overly ambitious.The analyses suggest that rainfall variation and the state of the macro-economy are likely to have a greater impact on livelihood status than local rural development interventions.

Multiplex livelihoods in rural Africa: recasting the terms and conditions of gainful employment

Abstract: Citing recent case study evidence from various parts of Africa, this article argues that the income diversification efforts of most rural dwellers over the past decade have been directed at meeting daily needs amidst declining returns to commercial agriculture. Individuals and households have experimented with new forms of livelihood, expanding their non-agricultural income sources, while retaining their base in subsistence farming. Various livelihood patterns are emerging, depending on historical, geographical and agro-ecological factors at local and national levels. Livelihood experimentation has catalysed overlapping arenas of dynamic change, notably disequilibria between households and individual members, tensions between generations, the recalibration of gender power balances, and a search for new social networks. So far this surge of livelihood ‘multiplexity’ has not generated adequate overall levels of gainful employment, technical innovation, purchasing power or welfare improvement. Thus, probing the complex interplay of economic, social, cultural and political dynamics in rural Africa becomes all the more essential for effective policy formulation.

Farmers' participation in soil and water conservation activities in the Chemoga Watershed, Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia

Abstract: Soil erosion by water constitutes a threat to the maintenance of the subsistence living of the Ethiopian rural population. Past efforts at Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) did not bring about significant results, mainly because of the top-down approach pursued. Uprooting this past oversight and instating a participatory approach has since then been strongly recommended as the correct strategy. This paper analyses the extent of farmers' participation in current SWC activities in the Chemoga watershed, East Gojjam Zone, Amhara Regional State. Formal household survey, informal and focus group discussions and field observation were used to generate the data. The results indicate that the majority of the farmers participated in the SWC against their will. The most important factor discouraging them from participating freely was the perceived ineffectiveness of the structures under construction. Awareness about soil erosion as a problem, labour shortage and land tenure insecurity were found to be less important in providing an explanation for the disinterest shown by most of the farmers towards the SWC activities. Therefore, the important factors that need immediate consideration for SWC efforts in the study area or the region at large are: (1) SWC structures have to be carefully designed and constructed taking into account ground realities, and (2) participation of the farmers has to be through their own conviction regarding the effectiveness and efficiency of the technologies. Alternative SWC technologies will have to be considered in this regard. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The faint promise of a distant market: a survey of Belem’s trade in non-timber forest products

Abstract: Increased trade in non-timber forest products (NTFPs) has been promoted as one possible means to slow tropical deforestation by increasing the economic value of intact forest. A market survey of NTFPs occurring in the Capim River basin in eastern Amazonia, Brazil demonstrated that the reality for many smallholder communities in frontier and remote regions includes chronic transportation difficulties, high variability in fruit production, perishable products and lack of market expertise. In some communities, declining abundance of NTFPs due to logging and fire has resulted in a lack of forest products to even meet subsistence needs. In areas close to cities where transportation is assured and where forest clearing has eroded the natural occurrence of some valuable native NTFPs, smallholders who manage and successfully market native fruit and medicinal species are overcoming these obstacles. In frontier regions undergoing rapid transformation, however, decline in locally used and regionally marketed NTFPs currently pose detrimental consequences for communities. Findings suggest that an overemphasis on NTFP marketing has diverted attention from local livelihood, resource access and subsistence issues.

Research note Utilising a farm typology to identify potential adopters of alternative farming activities in Greek agriculture

Abstract: Farm household survival strategies are acknowledged to determine the adoption of alternative farm enterprises as part of the farm household’s production and reproduction pattern and are, thus, used to identify the potential adopters of such enterprises. The present work utilises an ideal typology of Greek farms in order to identify different types of farms as regards their mode of survival. Each survival strategy is linked to different motives for and constraints against the adoption of alternative farm enterprises. Results show that three types of farm households may be identified, namely subsistence, survivalist and productivist farm households. The potential adopters of alternative farm enterprises may be traced among farm households that pursue a survivalist mode of production. It is argued that the diversity of farm structures observed within this type of farm households cannot be regarded as the decisive factor as far as their mode of survival is concerned. Rather, it is considered to form a context of different motivations for and constraints against the adoption of alternative farming activities. r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Making markets work for forest communities.

Abstract: This policy brief lays out strategies to improve the contribution of forest markets to local livelihoods. It is offered as a first step in a longer-term effort to promote forest markets that enhance the livelihoods of poor people while conserving forest resources. While forests are providing critical safety nets and subsistence for the poor there are specific niches where large numbers of low-income producers have-or could develop-competitive advantage.It is vital to alter the policies that hinder forest producers' income opportunities, and to engage the private sector in forging successful community business partnerships.

Explaining subsistence change in southern New Zealand using foraging theory models

Abstract: New Zealand provides one of the earliest examples of foraging theory applications to archaeological situations (Anderson 1981). Since this landmark study, significant developments over the last twenty years have led to an increasing number of detailed analyses examining the effects of resource depression on human foraging. In particular, foraging theory analyses have become better at documenting resource depression and integrating butchery/transport studies into these analyses. Using the faunal data from the Shag River Mouth site, I illustrate how these methodological advances have resulted in a more comprehensive understanding of the processes of subsistence change in southern New Zealand.

Making markets work for forest communities

Abstract: This policy brief lays out strategies to improve the contribution of forest markets to local livelihoods. It is offered as a first step in a longer-term effort to promote forest markets that enhance the livelihoods of poor people while conserving forest resources. While forests are providing critical safety nets and subsistence for the poor there are specific niches where large numbers of low-income producers have-or could develop-competitive advantage.It is vital to alter the policies that hinder forest producers' income opportunities, and to engage the private sector in forging successful community business partnerships.

The Mobile Street Food Service Practice in the Urban Economy of Kumba, Cameroon

Abstract: The mobile food service practice is one of multiple survival strategies adopted by poor urban households in Cameroon to maintain and expand the base of subsistence incomes, especially in the current surge of economic crisis. Though a fast-growing informal sector enterprise, it is still at an artisanal stage in urban Cameroon, creating an urgent need for a supportive policy environment that could have measurable positive impacts on improving the productivity, welfare and income levels of the micro-entrepreneurs. This study looks at the mobile food service practice in Kumba, Cameroon, in terms of its basic characteristics, the locational factors influencing its socio-spatial distribution, the critical success factors (CSFs) determining customer choices, and its impacts on the local environmental resources and quality of urban life. The mobile food service practice creates employment, generates income, and acts as a food energy-support instrument to the urban poor and local economic activities operating in Kumba. The vendors, who are mostly women, can make incomes that are 405 per cent of the national minimum wage and, thus, contribute financially towards the education, health and survival of their families. The paper provides some recommendations on ways to improve the efficiency of this sector so as to achieve sustainable economic and social development and to enhance empowerment thereof.

Subsistence strategies and early human population history: an evolutionary ecological perspective

Abstract: One of the keystones of the evolutionary ecological approach is the concept of energy budget, in which time and energy allocation is conceptually divided into somatic effort (growth, development and maintenance, and includes subsistence activities) and reproductive effort (which is further divided into mating effort and parental effort). Time and energy allocated to one component must be traded off against allocation to another. Using this energy budget approach in conjunction with some of the general implications of foraging theory, this article will explore the relationship between population dynamics and subsistence intensification. My discussion will revolve around two basic propositions regarding long-term human population history: 1) the near-zero growth rates that have prevailed through much of prehistory are likely due to long-term averaging across periods of relatively rapid local population growth interrupted by infrequent crashes caused by density-dependent and density-independent factors; and 2) broad changes in population growth rates across subsistence modes in prehistory are probably best explained in terms of changes in mortality due to the dampening or buffering of crashes rather than significant increases in fertility.

Food expenditures and household demographic composition in the US: A demand systems approach

Abstract: Food expenditures and subsistence quantities of poverty status and non–poverty status US households are analysed within a Linear Expenditure System that postulates subsistence quantities to be linear combinations of demographic variables. Using the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' 1992 Consumer Expenditure Survey and Detailed Monthly Consumer Price Indices, this article obtains expenditure elasticities, own–price elasticities and subsistence quantities for each income group across nine broadly aggregated food commodity groups. Elasticity estimates and subsistence quantity estimates differ across income groups, supporting the premise that policies targeted at specific income groups should be based on the target group's elasticity estimates rather than average population elasticities. Parameter estimates are then used to simulate how subsistence quantities and own–price elasticities can be expected to vary according to the demographic composition of the household within a specific income group.

The effect of handling time on subsistence technology

Abstract: Models in evolutionary ecology have been applied to non-human decision making for decades Archaeologists have been especially attracted to foraging models, because the evidence of past subsistence activities is a common component of the archaeological record world-wide No foraging model, though, accounts for the effects of subsistence technology The 'Tech Investment Model' we describe here does just this Assuming that most technologies serve to reduce handling time, a critical component of a resource's profitability, the model generates predictions about how much time an individual should invest in any particular technology Although preliminary, data from an initial test case in the Great Basin conform to the general expectations of the model Most importantly, the exercise forces attention to the relationships between tools and the resources handled with them, and has implications for subsistence transitions world-wide

Identification of subsistence fishers, fishing areas, resource use and activities along the South African coast

Abstract: A description is given of the research undertaken to provide a broad overview of the distribution and numbers of people who are subsistence or artisanal fishers and their activities along the coast of South Africa, to assist in the formulation of management protocols and to refine the existing definition of subsistence fishing. In total, 200 people were interviewed during the study, resulting in the identification of about 147 fishing communities, an estimated 28 338 fisher households and 29 233 people who potentially could be considered as subsistence fishers. Most of these fishers were found on the East Coast, more than 75% in southern KwaZulu-Natal and the former Transkei. They live in both rural and urban settings and harvest a variety of different species from intertidal, shallow subtidal and nearshore environments. Intertidal harvesting was the dominant activity along most of the East Coast, followed closely by subtidal harvesting. Harvesting nearshore resources that require the use of a boat was re...

Making ends meet in contemporary Russia : secondary employment, subsidiary agriculture and social networks

Abstract: Household subsistence in the Russian economic crisis secondary employment the Russian dacha and the myth of the urban peasant social networks and private transfers do Russian households have survival strategies?

Defining fishers in the South African context: subsistence, artisanal and small-scale commercial sectors

Abstract: Evolution of a new policy for the management of marine fisheries in South Africa led to the Marine Living Resources Act of 1998 (MLRA). Among other innovations, this requires that management strategies be developed for subsistence fisheries. As a prerequisite, definitions and criteria are needed to identify and distinguish them. To achieve this, the Chief Director of Marine & Coastal Management (MCM), the authority responsible for managing marine fisheries, appointed a Subsistence Fisheries Task Group (SFTG) to make recommendations about definitions and modes of management. The process involved successive surveys and consultations with fishing communities, communication with MCM, and a national workshop of all participants. This led to consensus about the following definition: Subsistence fishers are poor people who personally harvest marine resources as a source of food or to sell them to meet the basic needs of food security; they operate on or near to the shore or in estuaries, live in close proximity ...

Case studies on the socio-economic characteristics and lifestyles of subsistence and informal fishers in South Africa

Abstract: To develop a management strategy for informal fishers, a necessary first step is information about the nature of these fishers, their numbers and their socio-economic status. To accomplish this, a survey of socio-economic conditions and use of marine resources was undertaken in 1999 at 20 localities where fishing occurs around the coast of South Africa, concentrating on subsistence or small- to micro-scale artisanal commercial fishers. In each locality, 16–31 "fisher households" were surveyed by questionnaires, focus-group discussions and interviews with key informants. Demographic analyses revealed a low level of migrancy (∼5%), an average of 5.3 persons per household and a mean age of 27. Only ∼20% of fishers were women and ∼15% were children. Poverty was prevalent: unemployment averaged 40.3% (much higher than the national norm of 29.3%). Mean adult equivalent income per month spanned R193–R735 among regions, and was not correlated with size of settlement. Education levels were low, only ∼33% of people...

No-till farming for sustainable rural development

Abstract: The no-till (NT) farming approach developed in Brazil and nearby countries is providing a foundation for application in Sub-Saharan Africa and other semi-tropical environments, showing that when land and soil resources are properly managed, good things begin to occur in rural communities and landscapes. No-till farming is certainly not a panacea. However, with globalization and increased competition, cutting production costs will be essential, especially if/where/when subsidies will be removed. In addition, the NT farming approach may well provide a practical and appropriate way to implement the new World Bank Rural Strategy in many tropical countries. This farmer approved approach is moving to holistic pro-poor rural development and enhancement of returns to labor and land, successfully focusing on the poor as demonstrated by current experience in Paraguay and the southern Brazilian states. It recognizes the importance of fostering broad-based growth, and the participation of the private sector as an engine for change. Although it focuses on micro-watersheds and rural landscapes, NT farming addresses the entire rural space and overcomes the shortcomings of earlier top-down, non-inclusive approaches. And finally, by recognizing the leadership role played by farmer-led organizations, NT farming facilitates the increasingly broad-based stakeholder participation in design and implementation, moving away from working mainly with central governments in project and program design.

Rural Women Workers in Nineteenth-Century England: Gender, Work and Wages

Abstract: The range of women's work and its contribution to the family economy studied here for the first time. Despite the growth of women's history and rural social history in the past thirty years, the work performed by women who lived in the nineteenth-century English countryside is still an under-researched issue. Verdon directly addresses this gap in the historiography, placing the rural female labourer centre stage for the first time. The involvement of women in the rural labour market as farm servants, as day labourers in agriculture, and as domestic workers, are all examined using a wide range of printed and unpublished sources from across England. The roles village women performed in the informal rural economy (household labour, gathering resources and exploiting systems of barter and exchange) are also assessed. Changes in women's economic opportunities are explored, alongside the implications of region, age, marital status, number of children in the family and local custom; women's economic contribution to the rural labouring household is established as a critical part of family subsistence, despite criticism of such work and the rise in male wages after 1850. NICOLA VERDON is a Research Fellow in the Rural History Centre, University of Reading.

The socioeconomic significance of subsistence non-wood forest products in Leyte, Philippines

Abstract: The literature on non-wood forest products (NWFPs) often emphasizes the commercial potential of certain species. However, the utility of the forest to human communities located in or around it often exceeds the cash income residents get from the sale of commercial NWFPs, as indicated by limiting the harvest of the most marketable NWFPs in a forest-edge Philippine village that was formerly highly dependent on rattan (Calamus sp.) collection and processing as a cottage industry. A village survey showed that there was a correlation between specific socio-economic factors such as age, education, size and income of a household, and household food expenditure, and the knowledge and use of non-commercial NWFPs, which were collected for various purposes. The forest was still important and valued by the community for other uses. These other uses, including the extensive, habitual reliance on subsistence non-wood forest products, are described to illustrate the possibility that these products may be the only source of necessities until the greater economic conditions improve.

Market Integration and the Distribution of Ecological Knowledge within an Ecuadorian Fishing Community

Abstract: Scholars typically depict traditional ecological knowledge as a vanishing resource, negatively correlated with the capitalization of a community. The default view also tends to conceptualize such knowledge as one cohesive system, unitarily responsive to external forces. Using data from an artisanal shrimping community in Ecuador, this paper argues that current views are not sufficient to capture the complexity of socially distributed knowledge and need to be expanded. In particular, I show that integration into a market economy does not necessarily erode local knowledge about the natural world, but can actually foster the development of a new body of ecological knowledge. This finding brings into question current conceptions of traditional ecological knowledge and suggests that various types of such knowledge likely exist that are differentially subject to evolutionary forces and trajectories. The relationship between ethnoecological knowledge and incorporation into the global economy is generally depicted by anthropologists as antagonistic, and the process of modernization as eroding a disappearing resource in need of preservation (Zent 1999, Ruddle 1994, Hunn 1999, Dove 1999). However, market incorporation is not by default the harbinger of destruction of local knowledge in subsistence communities. In this report I will demonstrate, using consensus analysis data from fishers of Palestina, Ecuador, that engagement with the market economy can accelerate the acquisition of ethnoecological knowledge. This finding is significant because it is the first study describing a pattern that is counter to prevailing models of local ecological knowledge as a necessarily dwindling and endangered resource (Zent 1999, Dove 1999, Plotkin and Famolare 1992, Posey 1990, Ruddle 1994, Hunn 1999, Berkes 1993, Ohmagari and Berkes 1997). This study also brings into question how traditional ecological knowledge is defined and conceptualized in the current literature. In recent years, anthropologists have increasingly recognized the importance of local ecological knowledge in advancing theory (Gragson and Blount 1999), improving natural resource management (Rhoades and Harlan 1999, Berkes 1999, Nazarea et al. 1998), empowering local communities (Posey 1999), and resolving conflicts (Haenn 1999). Authors also identify understanding knowledge systems in local populations as a first step in these endeavors (Gragson and Blount 1999, Atran 1999). Here, I examine which factors promote knowledge about the local ecosystem. I specifically test for the role of age, sex, length of residence, and formal education in acquiring knowledge, and compare these variables with the degree of experience in commercial shrimp fishing, an activity recently introduced to the area as a result of integration into national and international economies. These variables were chosen because previous studies have implicated them in the acquisition and social distribution of ecological knowledge (Boster and Johnson 1989; Boster 1986, 1991; Acheson and Steneck 1998; Zent 1999; Ohmagari and Berkes 1997; Chipeniuk 1995). While the data presented below support many of the premises in the above studies, it demonstrates that while what is considered "traditional" ecological knowledge may degrade as a community changes, new local knowledge is created and socially distributed in the process. The data also suggest that such new knowledge is locally distinct and can be acquired within a relatively short time frame. Research Setting Palestina is a fishing community of approximately 2000 people, situated at the mouth of the Rio Verde river on the coast of northern Ecuador (Figure 1). Until two decades ago it had been relatively isolated from the rest of the country and external markets (Phelan 1967, Whitten 1965). Poor infrastructure prevented the outflow of products, and discouraged economic development or population growth in the area. Local livelihoods centered primarily on subsistence, comprised of fishing, hunting, and limited horticulture (Thomsen 1969, Guest 1999). …

Land reform and the development of commercial agriculture in Vietnam: policy and issues

Abstract: Over the last decade, following the doi moi reforms, the Vietnamese government has formally recognised the household as the basic unit of production and allocated land use rights to households. Under the 1993 Land Law these rights can be transferred, exchanged, leased, inherited, and mortgaged. A ‘land market’ is emerging in Vietnam but is still constrained for various reasons. Additionally, lack of flexibility of land use is an issue. As Vietnam moves into the world market and reduces trade barriers in line with ASEAN requirements, farmers are becoming increasingly vulnerable to falling incomes because of lower prices for their produce. This paper gives an overview of land reform policies, issues related to these, and discusses challenges facing Vietnamese agriculture as it strives to move its household farms from subsistence to a more commercial base.

Market Integration, Development, and Smallholder Forest Clearance

Abstract: A significant proportion of deforestation in Latin America is caused by smallholders living at the frontier of modern rural markets. This paper develops a household model that examines the roles of market integration, subsistence, time preference, and non-timber forest uses in the household’s decision to clear forest for future agriculture. The model explores the possible impacts of development programs that encourage market integration. The model shows that rates of forest clearance should be exacerbated in areas in which market integration is most rapid. An empirical estimation, using household data from the Tsimane people of Bolivia, tests hypotheses from the model.

An overview of the involvement of women in fisheries activities in Oceania

Abstract: In the Pacific Islands, an estimated 70 to 80% of the catch from inshore fisheries is used for subsistence purposes. It is uncertain what percentage of that is taken by women, although a recent study in Samoa found that 18% of all village fishers are female, who harvest around 23% of the total weight of seafood. Aside from traditional activities such as inshore harvesting and seafood processing for the family, women are becoming increasingly active in small businesses involving marine resources. Australia and New Zealand possess established commercial fishing industry sectors, and women’s involvement in fisheries in those two countries tends to be different from their largely subsistence and artisanal involvement in the majority of Pacific Island countries and territories. Countries with large-scale, on-shore processing facilities show a relatively large percentage of women employed in the commercial fishing industry — in New Zealand about 34% of the fishing industry workforce are women. This paper brings together information from the vast region of Oceania, including Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia and New Zealand. It also examines research and development needs; government policies with regard to women’s role in fisheries; and constraints that affect women’s involvement in fisheries management and development in Oceania.