Stimulating Non-Farm Rural Employment

A policy of stimulating non-farm rural employment is important to relieve population pressure on mixed farming systems, and to create a market for mixed-farm smallholders to serve, as well as to make the livelihoods of rural households people more diverse and therefore more robust. The wider availability of non-farm rural employment (NFRE) can have the following positive effects:

- smoothing seasonal variations in on-farm labour demand and income
- reducing risk by spreading it across diverse activities
- raising income
- allowing investment in assets including livestock, livestock housing and farm implements
- providing options more remunerative than unsustainable expolitation of the environment
- increasing female income and therefore family welfare

Some potential negative effects include:

- increased income inequality
- stagnation of farm output
- increased female workloads

Policy priorities include:

- development of human capital through education and training
- streamlining of regulations that limit rural enterprise creation

as well as:

- development of infrastructure
- development of credit and savings institutions

Some key criteria to be used in appraising the effectiveness of policies or projects to create NFRE include:

- the remoteness of the area
- population pressure
- the assets of rural people on which initiatives can build
- existing knowledge of livelihood strategies

For the special case of creating non-livestock based employment in pastoral systems click here

Key References

Ellis, F. 1999. Rural Livelihood Diversity in Developing Countries: Evidence and Policy Implications. ODI Natural Resource Perspectives, No.40 http://www.oneworld.org/odi/nrp/40.html

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