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Showing papers on "Subsistence agriculture published in 2014"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper developed a multi-sector multi-region model of a poor economy in which it is costly to transport goods across regions in order to study this outcome and found that higher transport costs drive up the size of the agricultural workforce and the fraction in subsistence.

170 citations


BookDOI
TL;DR: This paper revisited Africa's agricultural input landscape, exploiting the unique, recently collected, nationally representative, agriculturally intensive, and cross-country comparable Living Standard Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture covering six countries in the region (Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda).
Abstract: Conventional wisdom holds that Sub-Saharan African farmers use few modern inputs despite the fact that most growth-inducing and poverty-reducing agricultural growth in the region is expected to come largely from expanded use of inputs that embody improved technologies, particularly improved seed, fertilizers and other agro-chemicals, machinery, and irrigation. Yet following several years of high food prices, concerted policy efforts to intensify fertilizer and hybrid seed use, and increased public and private investment in agriculture, how low is modern input use in Africa really? This paper revisits Africa's agricultural input landscape, exploiting the unique, recently collected, nationally representative, agriculturally intensive, and cross-country comparable Living Standard Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture covering six countries in the region (Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda). The study uses data from more than 22,000 households and 62,000 plots to investigate a range of commonly held conceptions about modern input use in Africa, distilling the most striking and important findings into 10 key takeaway descriptive results.

148 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors defined the definition of subsistence entrepreneurship as entrepreneurial actions undertaken by individuals living in poverty, defined as "individuals living in extreme poverty" and defined a set of activities undertaken by them.
Abstract: We study subsistence entrepreneurship, defined as entrepreneurial actions undertaken by individuals living in poverty. Subsistence entrepreneurs are important elements of the global economy. By vir...

118 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the interrelationships between rainfall variability, livelihood/food security and migration in rural Savannah communities in Northern Ghana and found that households are highly dependent on rain-fed subsistence agriculture and livestock rearing, showing a low degree of economic diversification.
Abstract: This article examines the interrelationships between rainfall variability, livelihood/food security and migration in rural Savannah communities in Northern Ghana. It addresses the question of how strong dry season migration is pronounced and whether the recent dominant migration type is a coping or adaptation mechanism. The analysis is based on empirical research conducted in four communities of the Nadowli District (Upper West Region), using a mixed methods approach. It was found that the households are highly dependent on rain-fed subsistence agriculture and livestock rearing, showing a low degree of economic diversification. Study participants in general complained about the unpredictability of the weather and linked changes in rainfall to declining crop yields and livestock possession as well as to increasing food prices. A common livelihood strategy used by households is dry-season migration to more suitable farming areas and to mining sites. Research in 2011 revealed that the majority of migrants we...

111 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors assessed and compared the vulnerability of transhumant communities from three districts representing Eastern, Central and Western mountainous region of Nepal and found that the livelihood vulnerability and the climate change vulnerability differ across sites; both of them having lowest index values in the Central region.
Abstract: Climate change vulnerability depends on who you are, where you are and what you do. The indigenous communities who primarily depend on natural resources for subsistence livelihoods are among the first and most affected by climate change. Climate models have predicted pronounced warming in high altitude regions of the Himalayas. The transhumant communities of the Himalayas follow traditional lifestyles based on seasonal livestock rearing and subsistence agriculture. There is however, no information on how vulnerable transhumant communities are to climate change, and how vulnerability of transhumant herders differs across the mountainous areas of Nepal. Based on semi-structured interviews with transhumant herders and using the IPCC climate change vulnerability framework, this study assessed and compared the vulnerability of transhumant communities from three districts representing Eastern, Central and Western mountainous region of Nepal. The results showed that the livelihood vulnerability and the climate change vulnerability differ across sites; both of them having lowest index values in the Central region. The vulnerability dimensions viz. exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity are largely influenced by diversity in livelihood strategies, income sources and crops, and access to food, water and health facilities. The findings will inform the design of policies and programmes to reduce vulnerability and enhance adaptive capacity of indigenous communities in general and the transhumant communities of the Himalayas in particular.

110 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Examination of food residues in pottery reveals a transition at ca 2500 BC from the exploitation of aquatic organisms to processing of ruminant products, specifically milk, confirming Neolithic farming was practiced at high latitudes.
Abstract: The conventional 'Neolithic package' comprised animals and plants originally domesticated in the Near East. As farming spread on a generally northwest trajectory across Europe, early pastoralists would have been faced with the challenge of making farming viable in regions in which the organisms were poorly adapted to providing optimal yields or even surviving. Hence, it has long been debated whether Neolithic economies were ever established at the modern limits of agriculture. Here, we examine food residues in pottery, testing a hypothesis that Neolithic farming was practiced beyond the 60th parallel north. Our findings, based on diagnostic biomarker lipids and δ(13)C values of preserved fatty acids, reveal a transition at ca 2500 BC from the exploitation of aquatic organisms to processing of ruminant products, specifically milk, confirming farming was practiced at high latitudes. Combining this with genetic, environmental and archaeological information, we demonstrate the origins of dairying probably accompanied an incoming, genetically distinct, population successfully establishing this new subsistence 'package'.

107 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors estimate transferable household production functions of NTFP extraction in the Eastern Arc Mountains (EAM) in Tanzania, based on information from seven multi-site datasets related to the behaviour of over 2000 households.
Abstract: Understanding the spatial distribution of the quantity and economic value of Non-Timber Forest Product (NTFP) collection gives insight into the benefits that local communities obtain from forests, and can inform decisions about the selection of forested areas that are eligible for conservation and enforcement of regulations. In this paper we estimate transferable household production functions of NTFP extraction in the Eastern Arc Mountains (EAM) in Tanzania, based on information from seven multi-site datasets related to the behaviour of over 2000 households. The study shows that the total benefit flow of charcoal, firewood, poles and thatch from the EAM to the local population has an estimated value of USD 42 million per year, and provides an important source of additional income for local communities, especially the poorest, who mainly depend on subsistence agriculture. The resulting map of economic values shows that benefits vary highly across space with population density, infrastructure and resource availability. We argue that if further restrictions on forest access to promote conservation are considered, this will require additional policies to prevent a consequent increase in poverty, and an enforced trade-off between conservation and energy supply to rural and urban households.

101 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that the transition towards an agrarian way of life probably happened during a complex and continuous process of migration, integration and gradual assimilation between pioneering farmers and local hunter-gatherers.

98 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Findings derived from unique stacked surveys of all value chain segments in seven zones, more and less developed, around Bangladesh, China, India, and Vietnam are discussed.
Abstract: There is a rapid transformation afoot in the rice value chain in Asia. The upstream is changing quickly-farmers are undertaking capital-led intensification and participating in burgeoning markets for land rental, fertilizer and pesticides, irrigation water, and seed, and shifting from subsistence to small commercialized farms; in some areas landholdings are concentrating. Midstream, in wholesale and milling, there is a quiet revolution underway, with thousands of entrepreneurs investing in equipment, increasing scale, diversifying into higher quality, and the segments are undergoing consolidation and vertical coordination and integration. Mills, especially in China, are packaging and branding, and building agent networks in wholesale markets, and large mills are building direct relationships with supermarkets. The downstream retail segment is undergoing a "supermarket revolution," again with the lead in change in China. In most cases the government is not playing a direct role in the market, but enabling this transformation through infrastructural investment. The transformation appears to be improving food security for cities by reducing margins, offering lower consumer rice prices, and increasing quality and diversity of rice. This paper discusses findings derived from unique stacked surveys of all value chain segments in seven zones, more and less developed, around Bangladesh, China, India, and Vietnam.

96 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the relationship between trends in expert and rural farmer reasoning and predictions regarding the outcomes associated with development technology based on these beliefs and compared these mental model-based differences with local environmental conditions (using soil measurements) and agricultural outcomes in terms of farm production.
Abstract: Departing from the traditional agricultural model of input-heavy, intensive agriculture via the use of agrochemicals and irrigated water, many international development projects have started to promote conservation agriculture in developing countries. However, relying solely on technical expertise, largely generated outside the rural communities in which they are applied, often does not consider whether local ecological and culturally influenced beliefs are consistent with the technologies being promoted for adoption. We suggest these disconnects can be linked to differing ‘mental models’ of scientific experts and rural agricultural communities regarding the nature of farming dynamics and predicted impacts of introduced farming practices. Using an agricultural development project in Nepal as a case study, this research seeks to understand the relationship between trends in expert and rural farmer reasoning and predictions regarding the outcomes associated with development technology based on these beliefs. Further, we seek to compare these mental model-based differences with local environmental conditions (using soil measurements) and agricultural outcomes in terms of farm production (i.e. yield). While researchers’ mental models predicted that minimum tillage would improve yield, mental models from two of the three villages predicted that yield would decrease. Local soil and yield measurements support the farmers’ mental model predictions. Our results indicated that conservation agriculture techniques should not be applied universally, development practitioners should engage in a two-way learning with local communities to benefit from locally situated knowledge.

94 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
09 Apr 2014-PLOS ONE
TL;DR: Bulk collagen carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis of 82 human individuals from mid to late Holocene Brazilian archaeological sites reveal an adequate protein incorporation and, on the coast, the continuation in subsistence strategies based on the exploitation of aquatic resources despite the introduction of pottery and domesticated plant foods.
Abstract: Isotopic and molecular analysis on human, fauna and pottery remains can provide valuable new insights into the diets and subsistence practices of prehistoric populations. These are crucial to elucidate the resilience of social-ecological systems to cultural and environmental change. Bulk collagen carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis of 82 human individuals from mid to late Holocene Brazilian archaeological sites (∼6,700 to ∼1,000 cal BP) reveal an adequate protein incorporation and, on the coast, the continuation in subsistence strategies based on the exploitation of aquatic resources despite the introduction of pottery and domesticated plant foods. These results are supported by carbon isotope analysis of single amino acid extracted from bone collagen. Chemical and isotopic analysis also shows that pottery technology was used to process marine foods and therefore assimilated into the existing subsistence strategy. Our multidisciplinary results demonstrate the resilient character of the coastal economy to cultural change during the late Holocene in southern Brazil.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A holistic model framework with agent-based modeling is developed to examine interactions between demographic growth, hunting, subsistence agriculture, land cover change, and animal population in the Rupununi region of Amazonian Guyana.
Abstract: Indigenous people of the Rupununi region of Amazonian Guyana interact with their natural environment through hunting and subsistence agriculture. To date the sustainability of indigenous livelihoods has been analyzed by modeling either hunting or forest clearing. Here we develop a holistic model framework with agent-based modeling to examine interactions between demographic growth, hunting, subsistence agriculture, land cover change, and animal population in the Rupununi. We use an extensive field dataset from social surveys, animal observation records and hunting kill locations along with satellite images. The model exhibits feedback loops between a growing human population and depletion of local natural resources. Our model can reproduce the population size of two different villages along with landscape patterns without further calibration. Our model can be used for understanding the conditions of sustainability for indigenous communities relying on subsistence agriculture and hunting, and for scenario analyses to examine the implications of external interventions.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper established long-term trends in the purchasing power of the wages of unskilled workers and developed estimates for GDP per capita for medieval Egypt and Iraq, and argued that the environment of high wages that emerged after the Justinian Plague contributed to the Golden Age of Islam by creating demand for higher income goods.
Abstract: This study establishes long-term trends in the purchasing power of the wages of unskilled workers and develops estimates for GDP per capita for medieval Egypt and Iraq. Wages were heavily influenced by two long-lasting demographic shocks, the Justinian Plague and the Black Death and the slow population recovery that followed. As a result, they remained above the subsistence minimum for most of the medieval era. We also argue that the environment of high wages that emerged after the Justinian Plague contributed to the Golden Age of Islam by creating demand for higher income goods.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The dominant political economy of Mozambique is focused on three fundamental and interlinked processes, namely the maximisation of inflows of foreign capital without political conditionality, the development of linkages between these capital inflows and the domestic process of accumulation and the formation of national capitalist classes; and the reproduction of a labour system in which the workforce is remunerated at below its social cost of subsistence and families have to bear the responsibility for maintaining (especially feeding) the wage-earning workers by complementing their wages or trying to maintain... as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The Mozambican economy has been growing at an annual average of 7.5% for the best part of two decades, and has become one of the three most attractive economies for foreign direct investment (FDI) in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, it has been ineffective and inefficient at reducing poverty and providing a broader social and economic basis for development. It is argued here that the dominant political economy of Mozambique is focused on three fundamental and interlinked processes, namely the maximisation of inflows of foreign capital – FDI or commercial loans – without political conditionality; the development of linkages between these capital inflows and the domestic process of accumulation and the formation of national capitalist classes; and the reproduction of a labour system in which the workforce is remunerated at below its social cost of subsistence and families have to bear the responsibility for maintaining (especially feeding) the wage-earning workers by complementing their wages or trying to maintain ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the role of access restrictions on adaptive capacity and the ability to obtain these important food resources and found that reliance on WEPs is greater in households that report food insecurity, lack off-farm income, and have lower asset levels.
Abstract: Wild edible plants (WEPs) are known to make important contributions to food baskets and livelihoods in the smallholder and subsistence farming communities of sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, protecting and promoting the sustainable use of WEPs in concert with more mainstream agricultural innovation efforts has the potential to build household resilience to food insecurity. There is, however, a need to better understand how WEPs contribute to rural livelihoods on a daily basis and act as emergency safety nets during periods of hunger. Focusing on two villages in rural eastern Kenya, we sought to determine which household conditions are correlated with household reliance on WEPs as a coping strategy during times of food insecurity, while also investigating the role of access restrictions on adaptive capacity and the ability to obtain these important food resources. Results reveal that reliance on WEPs is greater in households that report food insecurity, lack off-farm income, and have lower asset levels. Access to WEPs is also a major factor in consumption frequency, with smaller farm sizes and increased distance to harvest areas significantly correlated with lower levels of WEP use. By combining vulnerability and adaptive capacity measures for each household, we created a more complete accounting of the factors that influence WEP consumption frequency, with implications for policy. This study represents an important first step in taking a more holistic view of the subsistence value of WEPs and the myriad factors that influence households' reliance on, and ability to obtain, uncultivated natural resources.

Journal ArticleDOI
27 Mar 2014-Animal
TL;DR: It was concluded that understanding the farm and farmers' perceptions of increased production helps with the understanding of productivity increase constraints and adds information to that reported in the literature at the level of technology, markets and institutions.
Abstract: Because of an increasing demand for animal-source foods, an increasing desire to reduce poverty and an increasing need to reduce the environmental impact of livestock production, tropical farming systems with livestock must increase their productivity. An important share of the global human and livestock populations are found within smallholder mixed-crop–livestock systems, which should, therefore, contribute significantly towards this increase in livestock production. The present paper argues that increased livestock production in smallholder mixed-crop–livestock systems faces many constraints at the level of the farm and the value chain. The present paper aims to describe and explain the impact of increased production from the farm and farmers’ perspective, in order to understand the constraints for increased livestock production. A framework is presented that links farming systems to livestock value chains. It is concluded that farming systems that pass from subsistence to commercial livestock production will: (1) shift from rural to urban markets; (2) become part of a different value chain (with lower prices, higher demands for product quality and increased competition from peri-urban producers and imports); and (3) have to face changes in within-farm mechanisms and crop–livestock relationships. A model study showed that feed limitation, which is common in tropical farming systems with livestock, implies that maximum herd output is achieved with small herd sizes, leaving low-quality feeds unutilised. Maximal herd output is not achieved at maximal individual animal output. Having more animals than required for optimal production – which is often the case as a larger herd size supports non-production functions of livestock, such as manure production, draught, traction and capital storage – goes at the expense of animal-source food output. Improving low-quality feeds by treatment allows keeping more animals while maintaining the same level of production. Ruminant methane emission per kg of milk produced is mainly determined by the level of milk production per cow. Part of the methane emissions, however, should be attributed to the non-production functions of ruminants. It was concluded that understanding the farm and farmers’ perceptions of increased production helps with the understanding of productivity increase constraints and adds information to that reported in the literature at the level of technology, markets and institutions.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe an established approach to vulnerability assessment, the "Household Economy Approach" (HEA) and its potential application to the management of climate change in developing countries.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of bone collagen was performed to understand dietary intake in two populations from the sites of Bestamak (MBA) and Lisakovsk (LBA) in northern Kazakhstan.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors assessed one form of conflict, crop raiding by forest-dwelling primates, along the boundary of a tropical montane forest fragment (Gishwati Forest) in western Rwanda.
Abstract: Human–wildlife conflict (HWC) presents an increasing challenge to conservation, particularly in densely populated parts of low-income countries. This article assessed one form of conflict, crop raiding by forest-dwelling primates, along the boundary of a tropical montane forest fragment (Gishwati Forest) in western Rwanda. Variation in species involved, crops affected, differences in magnitude with season and distance to the forest boundary, and the nature of mitigation efforts were assessed through semi-structured interviews with farmers and field-based observations during June and July 2009. Substantial losses of crops were reported, with replacement costs possibly reaching 10–20% of total household income. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and Cercopithecus monkeys were the sole reported raiders, mainly affecting maize and legumes. Mitigation was restricted to guarding of crops and modification of farming practices, the latter potentially having significant dietary consequences for subsistence farmers. The...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors analyzed the implications of the combined effect of labouring in oil palm plantations and land access on households, and discussed how these implications affect human well-being in two indigenous communities of the Polochic valley, Guatemala.
Abstract: Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) has become one of the most rapidly expanding crops in the world. Many countries have promoted its cultivation as part of a broader rural development strategy aimed at generating paid work and producing both export commodities and biofuels. However, oil palm expansion has often occurred at the expense of ecosystems and subsistence agriculture, and on lands riddled with tenure conflicts. In this article, we analyse the implications of the combined effect of labouring in oil palm plantations and land access on households, and we discuss how these implications affect human well-being in two indigenous communities of the Polochic valley, Guatemala. Combining participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and land-time budget analysis at household level, we reveal how oil palm cultivation increases incomes for plantation workers’ households, but decreases the productivity of maize cultivation, reduces the time that household members have available for other activities and, particularly, reduces women’s resting time. In contrast, households that focus more intensively on maize cultivation show higher degrees of food security and women can allocate more time to social activities. However, our results also show that maize consumption per capita has not decreased in households working in oil palm plantations since such crop is considered sacred by the Q’eqchi’ and plays a central role in their diet and culture. In conclusion, we argue that while working for an oil palm cultivation can increase specific elements of the basic material conditions for a good life, other aspects such as food security, health, freedom of choice, and social relationships can become deteriorated.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the macro-botanical remains from two Late/Final Bronze Age (ca. 1950-1300 bc) mobile pastoralist habitation sites in the Murghab alluvial fan region of southern Turkmenistan were reported.
Abstract: Archaeological investigations of pastoral economies often emphasize exchange relations with agricultural populations, though for Bronze Age Eurasia the notion of a ubiquitous ‘pastoral realm’ has masked various forms of mixed subsistence economies. In Central Asia, there are few attempts to specifically identify the domestic crops utilized by mobile pastoralists or what they may suggest about the role of agriculture in mobile pastoral production or subsistence strategies. This study reports the macrobotanical remains from two Late/Final Bronze Age (ca. 1950–1300 bc) mobile pastoralist habitation sites in the Murghab alluvial fan region of southern Turkmenistan. We compare our results with published macrobotanical data from contemporary agricultural settlements in the Murghab region, as well as with other sites in broader prehistoric Eurasia. We find that mobile pastoralists in the Murghab utilized some of the same domestic crops as their sedentary neighbors. While the data presented here do not preclude the possibility that mobile pastoralists may have practiced some low-investment cultivation (particularly of millet), we hypothesize an economic model that places mobile pastoralists in direct contact with nearby sedentary farming communities through exchange for pre-processed grains. These results highlight one of the possible strategies of mobile pastoral subsistence in Central Asia, and are a further step toward identifying the various degrees of agricultural involvement in the conceptually outdated pastoral realm of Eurasia.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed micro-level behavioral insights at the intersection of poverty and the environment and derive macro-marketing implications for marketing management, and public policy in subsistence marketplaces.
Abstract: The objective of this article is to develop micro-level behavioral insights at the intersection of poverty and the environment and derive macro-marketing implications. This micro-level behavioral perspective encompasses psychological and socio-cultural phenomena and emphasizes consumption and conservation. Construing the environment in a broad sense to encompass living circumstances, we conducted interviews to uncover the distinctive nature of environmental issues in subsistence marketplaces. Our findings emphasize the importance of different levels of spatial and psychological distance as well as a number of coping strategies that reflect individuals and communities sustaining themselves through survival, relatedness, and growth. We link distances and coping to efficacy and motivation to act, and derive implications for macro-level issues in marketing management, and public policy.

Journal ArticleDOI
31 Oct 2014
TL;DR: Ghana has a long fishing tradition, including industrial fishing as mentioned in this paper, but the catches of other sectors (artisanal, subsistence, and recreational fishing) were not reported, their contribution to the livelihoods of Ghanaians was simply not documented, and their impact on fish stocks overlooked.
Abstract: Ghana has a long fishing tradition, including industrial fishing. After many of the countries where Ghanaian fleets were actively fishing declared an Exclusive Economic Zone in the 1980s, the distant-water fleet of Ghana returned to its home waters, precipitating a collapse of some local stocks. While official catches reported to the FAO document this decline, the catches of other sectors (artisanal, subsistence, and recreational fishing) were not reported, their contribution to the livelihoods of Ghanaians was simply not documented, and their impact on fish stocks overlooked. Herein, total catches were estimated at 20.8 million tonnes between 1950 and 2010 compared to 11.8 million tonnes reported to the FAO. Subsistence catches, notably from coastal lagoons represented the bulk of unreported catches and seemed to have increased overall during this period, while the artisanal and large-scale sector catches decreased. Furthermore, the economic contribution of artisanal fisheries to Ghana is declining mainl...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: There are millions of "subsistence" entrepreneurs around the world, located primarily in developing countries, engaging in micro enterprise to eke out a survival living when other labor market opti...
Abstract: There are millions of “subsistence” entrepreneurs around the world, located primarily in developing countries, engaging in micro enterprise to eke out a survival living when other labor market opti...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine an overlooked low-income community that shares elements of subsistence contexts and reveal multiple ways in which a trailer park community residents experience and manage intertwined disadvantages, including financial deprivation, poor health, lack of access to resources, and social stigmatization.
Abstract: Subsistence consumers are disadvantaged and marginalized on many levels, including financial deprivation, poor health, lack of access to resources, and social stigmatization. The disadvantages experienced by subsistence consumers are interconnected and co-constitutive; being disadvantaged in one domain often intersects with other disadvantages, contributing to an overall vulnerability within the market system. Drawing from the intersectionality paradigm, the authors examine an overlooked low-income community that shares elements of subsistence contexts. The findings reveal multiple ways in which a trailer park community residents experience and manage intertwined disadvantages. Several overlapping identity categories (i.e., socio-economic status, health status, and type of housing) vis-a-vis structural and relational dynamics are fleshed out. Implications for research on subsistence marketplaces and the usefulness of the intersectionality approach for macromarketing research are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jul 2014-Geoforum
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze how, why and to what extent cooperatives are involved in integrating family farmers into the biodiesel chain and what this means for the social sustainability of biodiesel.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored how rural households in six villages in the lowlands of Champasak Province in southern Laos make a living and examined some of the issues involved in attempting to promote intensive, market-oriented rice farming in a context of an emerging on-farm labour shortage combined with an increasing flow of remittances from migrant family members.
Abstract: Despite being a low-income, agriculture-based country with a subsistence orientation, Laos is in the early stages of a major economic transformation whereby rural households have been experiencing rapid change in their farming and livelihood systems. Some households have begun to engage in semi-commercial farming while others have adopted labour-oriented or migration-oriented livelihood strategies. This paper explores how rural households in six villages in the lowlands of Champasak Province in southern Laos make a living. These villages vary in their access to irrigation and to markets. Nevertheless, in all villages, long-term migration of younger household members to neighbouring Thailand has come to play a large role in household livelihood strategies. In some cases this is necessary to meet the household’s consumption requirements; in most, it is part of a diversified strategy in which rice farming still plays a significant role, though still largely for subsistence. The paper examines some of the issues involved in attempting to promote intensive, market-oriented rice farming in a context of an emerging on-farm labour shortage combined with an increasing flow of remittances from migrant family members.

18 Sep 2014
TL;DR: Reed and Norgarrd as mentioned in this paper presented a sustainable futures speaker series at Humboldt State University on March 13, 2014, sponsored by Schatz Energy Research Center and the Environment and Community Program.
Abstract: Lecture delivered at Humboldt State University on March 13, 2014 by Ron Reed and Kari Norgarrd. Part of the Sustainable futures speaker series sponsored by the Schatz Energy Research Center and the Environment and Community Program.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that while the subsistence economies are distinct at urban and non-urban sites, the ceramic production and trade interactions are significantly intertwined and more complex than the traditional sedentary-mobile dichotomy.
Abstract: Excavations at Ojakly (site 1744) in the Murghab alluvial fan in Turkmenistan mark the first systematic collection of archaeological materials related to Bronze Age mobile pastoralists in the region, and the earliest evidence to date of their occupation patterns, subsistence practices, and ceramic production activities Because the appearance of mobile pastoral groups in the Murghab during the Late Bronze Age (ca 1950–1500 bc) is traditionally associated with significant changes in regional sociopolitical structures, these data are important for establishing local strategies of and the relationship between sedentary agricultural and mobile pastoral populations Here, we present ceramic, faunal, archaeobotanical, and lithic data that force us to reconsider the traditional sedentary-mobile dichotomy Specifically, we find that while the subsistence economies are distinct at urban and non-urban sites, the ceramic production and trade interactions are significantly intertwined and more complex than

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A set of 20 perceptions toward rural–urban land change is inductively determined and urbanization is negatively perceived by traditionalist smallholder communities.