scholarly journals Working Out the Solution to Rural Poverty

Author(s):  
Christopher Cramer ◽  
John Sender ◽  
Arkebe Oqubay

Ideas about poverty and poverty reduction policy are clouded by misleading measures and unreliable evidence. National statistical organizations (NSOs) are under-resourced and the collection and dissemination of data are compromised by political pressures. Allegedly pro-poor policies have had an inegalitarian impact in rural Africa. Conventional views expecting that support spread across smallholder farmers will reduce poverty are based on skewed evidence and ideology. Large farms have a bigger effect on poverty reduction through labour markets. ‘Gold standard’ poverty measures based on consumption surveys are unreliable and misleading. Composite indices are even less useful. There are better ways to assess deprivation. The poorest typically live in small households with few men in them. Women and children in these households suffer the risks of teenage pregnancy; they risk undernutrition because of a monotonous and undiversified diet; they can acquire hardly any basic consumer wage goods; they depend on access to wage employment opportunities.

2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (No. 4) ◽  
pp. 181-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.B. Shrestha ◽  
W.-Ch. Huang ◽  
S. Gautam ◽  
T.G. Johnson

Poverty and hunger reduction are intertwined challenges and enduring issues in the world, particularly in developing countries. Improvement in the efficiency in vegetable farming helps the farmers increase the per capita income, reduce poverty and eventually improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers. This paper evaluates economic efficiency of vegetable farms in Nepal using a non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. The results show evidence to suggest that vegetable farms in Nepal have a considerable potential for improving the vegetable production efficiency with a greater access to improved seed, agricultural credit, and training and extension services. Some policies options with regard to the vegetable production technology, and support services for farmers in general and women farmers in particular, are suggested to increase the farm efficiency. While some of these support services are currently available, we suggest that a more focus be given to creating the improved market access, to the women focused extension, and to training packages for the sustainable production. These support services can lead to increases in the farm income and to reduce poverty.


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 462
Author(s):  
Hongyu Wang ◽  
Xiaolei Wang ◽  
Apurbo Sarkar ◽  
Lu Qian

Market-based initiatives like agriculture value chain (AVC) are becoming progressively pervasive to support smallholder rural farmers and assist them in entering larger market interventions and providing a pathway of enhancing their socioeconomic well-being. Moreover, it may also foster staggering effects towards the post-era poverty alleviation in rural areas and possessed a significant theoretical and practical influence for modern agricultural development. The prime objective of the study is to explore the effects of smallholder farmers’ participation in the agricultural value chain for availing rural development and poverty alleviation. Specifically, we have crafted the assessment employing pre-production (improved fertilizers usage), in-production (modern preservation technology), and post-production (supply chain) participation and interventions of smallholder farmers. The empirical data has been collected from a micro survey dataset of 623 kiwifruit farmers from July to September in Shaanxi, China. We have employed propensity score matching (PSM), probit, and OLS models to explore the multidimensional poverty reduction impact and heterogeneity of farmers’ participation in the agricultural value chain. The results show that the total number of poor farmers who have experienced one-dimensional and two-dimensional poverty is relatively high (66.3%). We also find that farmers’ participation in agricultural value chain activities has a significant poverty reduction effect. The multidimensional poverty level of farmers using improved fertilizer, organizational acquisition, and using storage technology (compared with non-participating farmers) decreased by 30.1%, 46.5%, and 25.0%, respectively. The multidimensional poverty reduction degree of male farmers using improved fertilizer and participating in the organizational acquisition is greater than that of women. The multidimensional poverty reduction degree of female farmers using storage and fresh-keeping technology has a greater impact than the males using storage and improved storage technology. Government should widely promote the value chain in the form of pre-harvest, production, and post-harvest technology. The public–private partnership should also be strengthened for availing innovative technologies and infrastructure development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 119 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Jing Shuai ◽  
Jing Liu ◽  
Jinhua Cheng ◽  
Xin Cheng ◽  
Jing Wang

2003 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 1367-1384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Ellis ◽  
Ntengua Mdoe

2021 ◽  
pp. 58-60
Author(s):  
T. Indumathi ◽  
G. Savaraiah

The World Bank's Andhra Pradesh Rural Poverty Reduction Project supports the self helf groups of the women members. It promotes women's social, economic, legal and political empowerment to reduce poverty among the poor and the poorest of the poor. The important object of this article is to examine the impact of micronance on the socio economic empowerment of the rural women supported by the national reputed NGO- Rashtriya Seva Samithi (RASS). 184 women members of the SHGs promoted by Rasthriya Seva Samathi (RASS) an NGO which located in Tirupati town. 184 samples are selected randomly from 15 SHGs scattered throughout the Tirupati rural mandal (Taluk) from the area of the study have been considered to conduct the present research study. The study reveals that 87.71 percent of the sample women were below the poverty line before joining the SHGs. As a result of SHG, about 40 percent of the sample women crossed the poverty line. The highest intensive value indicates that more women have participated in social agitations for the welfare of the children and the society. The second highest intensity reveals that considerable numbers of women of SHGs have participated in the government sponsored schemes. The 1st point secured 3rd rank with total intensity value of 605 which status that the micro credit has resulted in increased social status and empowerment.


2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 1001 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Nampanya ◽  
S. Khounsy ◽  
J. R. Young ◽  
V. Napasirth ◽  
R. D. Bush ◽  
...  

Indigenous yellow cattle (Bos indicus) and Asiatic swamp buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) are important livestock species in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos). Data from 2011 estimated there was a national herd of 1 586 200 cattle and 774 200 buffalo, with average numbers of 5.3 cattle and 3.4 buffalo per farm household, indicating that the majority of farm households with large ruminants were smallholders, retaining large ruminants as a storage of wealth, for sale as meat, and as a source of manure fertiliser. Increasing demand for red meat in both domestic and neighbouring markets, driven by rapidly growing economies and urbanisation, offers opportunities for Lao smallholders to gain more income from their livestock. However, improving cattle and buffalo production and a more sustainable supply of safe beef and buffalo meat, requires that numerous production, health and welfare constraints be addressed, including: prevalence of important infectious and parasitic diseases, nutritional deficits particularly in the dry season, undeveloped trading, meat processing and marketing systems, limited veterinary and extension service capacity, adverse impacts from climate change and cultural practices specific to buffalo husbandry, plus policy developments that recognise and adapt to changes in land use. Improvements in large ruminant health, processing and marketing are of particular importance as these will enable poor smallholder farmers to participate in emerging beef markets and expand other agricultural enterprises, improving rural livelihoods, with potential reductions in rural poverty and increased food security. This paper identifies the strategic interventions that may increase the supply of cattle and buffalo and improve rural livelihoods in Laos and the Greater Mekong Subregion.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 168-182
Author(s):  
David Mhlanga ◽  
◽  
Steven Henry Dunga ◽  
Tankiso Moloi ◽  
◽  
...  

The study sought to investigate the impact of financial inclusion on poverty reduction in Zimbabwe among the smallholder farmers. It is alleged that financial inclusion can help in achieving seven of the seventeen sustainable development goals (SDGs), which include poverty eradication in all its forms everywhere, ending hunger, achieving food security, ensuring improved nutrition as well as promoting sustainable agriculture and many others. Using the simple regression method, the study discovered that financial inclusion has a strong impact on poverty reduction among smallholder farmers. The study went on to discover that, for the government to tackle poverty especially among the smallholder farmers, it is important to ensure that farmers do participate in the financial sector through saving, borrowing and taking out insurance among other services. So, it is important for the government of Zimbabwe to fully implement policies that encourage financial inclusion such as making sure that farmers find it easy to access financial institutions and encouraging financial institutions to review transaction costs like bank account opening charges periodically, implementing financial education programs among the farmers because these variables are important in influencing farmers to participate or preventing them from using financial services.


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