Extent and Determinants of Poverty among Rural Non-Farm Workers in Punjab

The economy of Punjab has been undergoing the process of structural change. The share of the primary sector in total employment has declined at a slower rate. Trends have that people are shifting to the non-farm sector as there is little potential in the agricultural sector to generate additional employment opportunities. The number of non-farm workers is increasing continuously in Punjab. In the non-farm sector, most of the regular jobs are being created in manufacturing and services. The non-manufacturing sector is mainly creating casual employment opportunities. In this background, the present paper examines the poverty status of the rural non-farm workers in Punjab. Using a sample of 659 households from the three districts of Punjab, the study reveals that about 19 percent of the non-farm workers live below the poverty line and 5.27 percent are extremely poor. The incidence of poverty is higher among the SC households than other castes. The workers, who are employed in casual jobs, are more prone to poverty. The greatest proportion of those living below the poverty line can be found in the case of the workers employed in brick kilns and in electronics repair works. About 37 percent of those working as construction workers, loaders in the grain market or in MGNREGS, are living below the poverty line. All of the wage workers in these three categories are poor and vulnerable. The proportion of non poor workers increases and that of living below the poverty line declines with the increase in the level of education and increase in the size of land ownership.

Towards Climate Neutrality in Poland by 2050: Assessment of Policy Implications in the Farm Sector

Climate neutrality achievement in the European Union assumes the necessity of efforts and transformations in most economic sectors of its member-states. The farm sector in Poland, being the second largest contributor to the country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and in the top fifth of farm sectors in the EU-27 countries, needs to undergo structural and technological transformations to contribute to the climate action goals. The article assesses the potential impacts of Poland’s climate neutrality achievement path on the domestic farm sector in terms of its structure, output, income, and prices of agricultural products. The approach is based on complex economic modelling combining computable general equilibrium (CGE) and optimisation modelling, with the farm sector model consisting of farm, structural, and market modules. While the modelling results cover three GHG emission-reduction scenarios up to 2050, to understand the transformation impact within varying policy approaches, the study for each scenario of farm sector development also outlines three policy options: carbon pricing, forced emission limit, and carbon subsidies. Results in all scenarios and policy options indicate a strong foreseeable impact on agricultural output and prices (mainly livestock production), shifts in the production structure toward crops, as well as changes in farm income along the analysed timeframe.

An Exploratory Investigation into the Farm Credit Market in New Zealand

<p>An increasing interest in the finance of farming in New Zealand has emerged in recent years. This is a result of three major developments: (i) the increasing reliance of the farm sector on external sources of finance. For instance, debt per farm has been increasing at an annual compound rate of 12% between 1963 and 1970; (ii) the effect of recent economic phenomena, such as falling product prices and a high rate of internal inflation, which have highlighted the question of a farm debt "burden"; (iii) the increasing sophistication of the New Zealand economy. This has offered the community alternative investment opportunities and has raised the question of availability of finance for farmers to sustain and increase their production.</p>

An Exploratory Investigation into the Farm Credit Market in New Zealand

<p>An increasing interest in the finance of farming in New Zealand has emerged in recent years. This is a result of three major developments: (i) the increasing reliance of the farm sector on external sources of finance. For instance, debt per farm has been increasing at an annual compound rate of 12% between 1963 and 1970; (ii) the effect of recent economic phenomena, such as falling product prices and a high rate of internal inflation, which have highlighted the question of a farm debt "burden"; (iii) the increasing sophistication of the New Zealand economy. This has offered the community alternative investment opportunities and has raised the question of availability of finance for farmers to sustain and increase their production.</p>

Does gender matter for household livelihood diversification in Ethiopia rural areas?

Nowadays, the non-farm sector gives more attention and high expectations in reducing poverty in sub-Saharan African. Because participation of farm households in the none-farm sector out of their farm activities will play a great role to reduce poverty. Cross-sectional data were used to collect data in 2020 from farm household heads of 371 respondents with the mixed methodology to investigate the effect of demographic factors in none/off-farm economic activities on gender perspective in Ethiopia. In this study, we employ a Logistic regression model to explore the probabilities of household heads' participation in none/off-farm economic activities out of their farm. The result indicated, age and education level have a positive effect and statistically significant effect on increasing non-farm activities with the coefficients of 3.406, 1.956 respectively, confirmed that these variables should take into account in policy development to increase their impact on livelihood diversification. And Gender has a negatively significant on livelihood diversification. FHH is more participants in non-farm economic activities than MHH. Credit access does not contribute to increasing livelihood diversification instead; it contributes to agricultural specialization, not diversification. Surprisingly, family size has insignificant results in non-farm economic activities The outcome indicated it has its implications for the Ethiopian policy and strategy. The government should give more attention to the progressive aspects of non-farm economic activities to eradicate poverty. Whereas, decreasing its negative impact on poorer households by controlling obstacles of non-farm activities.

Emerging Challenges in Rural Non-Farm Sector and Inequality in Rural India

Purpose: This paper highlights the changing patterns of income diversification and the effects of various socio-economic factors influencing the non-farm (NF) income of rural households in India. The study also explores the inequality effects of the non-farm earnings of the households by using the Fields inequality decomposition. Method: The study compares and evaluates the determinants and trends of inequality in 2004-2005 and 2011-2012 in the NF sector. It uses nationally representative data from two rounds of the Indian Household Development Survey (IHDS), which includes a panel of 36,278 households at all levels in India. The Censored Least Absolute Deviation (CLAD) model is used to estimate household determinants for non-farm income. The Fields decomposition decomposes total income inequality by considering the socio-economic factors. Results: The study finds that variations in non-farm earnings have increased. Field's Income Inequality Decomposition estimates show that income inequalities between households are significantly high due to factors such as education, level of the household head, land ownership, and population density, but also appear to be declining in 2011-12. Also, the earning gaps based on gender, age, and geographical zones have increased. Implications: Overall, the non-farm income during the studied period was observed to be biased towards the better-off households. However, it opened up opportunities for underprivileged households as well. The non-farm sector has huge potential in augmenting incomes for unprivileged rural households. Therefore, the government should pay attention to this sector as a means of reducing income inequality and alleviating poverty.

Smallholders’ Challenges: Realizing Peri-Urban Opportunities in Bengaluru

Urban expansion creates potential for increased incomes among previously rural smallholders from sources other than traditional agriculture. Harnessing this potential, however, requires investments into agricultural upgrading or non-farm activities. The article addresses the question concerning to what extent these investments are realised in the peri-urban space of Bengaluru. Its answers are based on a review of the literature and extensive field surveys in two differentially developed districts assessing the smallholders’ economic situation in 2019 and as a recall in 2009. Our findings are that only a few smallholders were able to realise the peri-urban opportunities. Household income increased in real terms only by a little, especially from farming. Instead of a traditional farm to non-farm production linkage, surpluses from the non-farm sector were seen to meet the working capital needs of the farm sector. While physical access to formal financial institutions has significantly improved, formal borrowing is dominated by small-sized loans from registered self-help groups or traditional priority sector loans. Only a few households took up non-farm activities as many others failed to obtain sufficient credit and lacked knowledge about remunerative non-farm projects. Overall, rising outlays for education and health services leave little resources for any productive investments.

FEMALE WORK PARTICIPATION IN AGRICULTRUE IN ANDHRA PRADESH: AN ANALYTICAL STUDY

Agriculture is one of the important and crucial occupations in Andhra Pradesh. More than 66 per cent of population is involved in agriculture and allied activities in the state. Women's participation in agricultural activities has been continuously growing compared to that of men which not only implies increased dependence of women on agricultural sector but also reiterates their crucial role in the sustainable growth and future of the farm sector. In other words changes in relation to economic and social changes have crept in the villages since the launch of the liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG). Youth in the villages in Andhra Pradesh have been migrated to the towns and cities to eke out livelihood and joined the construction works and other menial works. As a result of it, the role of women in rural India has become multiple and their share in the agriculture workforce has increased since 1991.