Linkage of sustainable livelihoods with rural development

Importance of rural livelihoods Between one-quarter and one-fifth of the world’s population derive their livelihood from small-scale agriculture. Most of these people are members of what we call peasant farm households or are dependent upon the activities of peasant farm households. The large number of rural people and their involvement in peasant agriculture and other activities makes the understanding of rural people, peasants, and their livelihoods important for many reasons.

· In global terms, poverty is predominantly a rural phenomenon (as noted earlier although there are large and increasing numbers of urban poor people, a greater proportion of poor people in the world live in rural areas and poverty tends to be more severe in rural areas).

· Many of the rural poor depend directly or indirectly upon peasant livelihoods.

· Peasant agriculture is significant in both national economies and the world economy in terms of – its contribution to production of livestock and of food, beverage and industrial crops – its effect on the environment and scarce natural resources (peasant agriculture is an important form of land use often found in marginal areas where land is vulnerable to degradation and subject to competing uses and other natural resources, such as water, may be scarce).

· Poor rural people’s livelihoods are significant in national economies and the world economy in terms of – the potential market for increased demand for consumer goods and services if rural people become more wealthy – their potential contribution to, or drain on, resources either as a dynamic and growing part of national economies generating employment, tax revenues, and so on, or as a stagnant sector demanding welfare support for a poor and large part of the population.

Understanding these livelihoods is therefore important for our understanding of, and action to address, rural poverty, the resulting human suffering, and the pressures it then places on urban areas (through rural–urban migration, national, regional, and global economies, and the environment).

These points are illustrated by the impact of recent economic growth in China on the world economy.

Until the mid-1970s China’s economy was dominated by a largely stagnant peasant agriculture, but then technical, institutional, and economic policy change allowed rapid growth in peasant agriculture in large areas of China, and these in turn led to a transformation of the economy with global economic, social and environmental implications.

National and rural poverty rates have fallen dramatically. However, peasant incomes and growth (particularly in more remote areas and in areas with lower agricultural potential) now lag behind incomes and growth in the rest of the Chinese economy.

Conversely, in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, per capita agricultural growth was low and even negative for much of the second half of the 20th century with increases in both the incidence and severity of rural and national poverty, very poor national economic performance, and in many areas increasing pressure on limited natural resources.

For those of us who are not peasants or poor rural people there are, then, compelling arguments of compassion and self-interest urging us to work with rural people to improve their quality of life and to extend their control over their environments, resources, and destinies. However, if we are to assist them (as policy-makers, researchers or community development workers, for example), we must understand as far as possible both their environments and their behavior within those environments.

This is necessary for communication and partnership. It is also needed for analysis of what they are doing and why, for identification of strategies for improvement, and for prediction of their responses to change.

Structural characteristics of rural livelihoods The majority of poor rural people are what we may call peasants, or their livelihoods have many of the characteristics of peasants’ livelihoods.

These people engage in part-time farming activities with a mode of agricultural production distinct from that of other farms (such as commercial, smallholder family or co-operative farms) with multiple economic activities which are predominantly in small scale (often household) activities and enterprises in the informal economy.

These activities also tend to have a heavy dependence on family labor and little use of capital. The distinctive features of poor rural people’s activities require analysis of the livelihoods of these people using different techniques from those generally used in analyzing commercial agricultural or non-agricultural enterprises in the formal sector.

We have said that rural, and particularly peasant, livelihoods have certain distinguishing features. In this section we want to try to define these in terms of particular structural characteristics and, although it is difficult, reach a definition of peasants which would satisfy most people and is both operationally useful and theoretically valid. This involves making generalizations which are widely applicable, although, owing to the heterogeneity of peasant livelihoods, they will not be applicable in all cases.

It is important that we recognize, however, that we are looking for a broad definition of peasants that identifies the principal features that we need to understand: we are not trying to compile a very precise definition that allows us to classify particular people or households as peasants or not peasants.