Many of the Third World countries are characterised by high levels of poverty in the rural areas. So, many government strategies are geared towards improving the living standards of the poor rural masses through introduction of cash crops in the agricultural sector. These are meant to create employment opportunities and provide a sustainable supply of income for the rural poor. Asparagus production in Lesotho is one of those strategies that was used by the government to combat rural poverty. In the past years, especially during the initial years of implementation of the asparagus project. the peasants achieved sustainable livelihoods. However, in the last decade, the asparagus project was confronted with many difficulties that made it less beneficial to the peasants. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

Bibliography: leaves [310]-327. / Microfiche. / xii, 327 leaves, bound ill., maps, plans 29 cm

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 189-196).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-84).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves i-iv).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Riverside, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 227-244).

Thesis (M.Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes special study report entitled : Interface of old and new: transformation of shophouse to museum. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Orientador: Sonia Maria Pessoa Pereira Bergamasco / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Agrícola / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-19T13:38:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 QueirozNeto_Exzolvildres_D.pdf: 1535434 bytes, checksum: 7c0c35b4ea381b61693350a521667666 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: O espaço é um recurso único e sua disponibilidade ocorre por um processo de vivência e nenhuma atividade humana se pode realizar sem a sua apropriação permanente ou temporária. O espaço rural constitui-se em uma forma-conteúdo complexa objeto de uso herdado do passado, portanto, de forma durável que reúne visões de mundo, elementos simbólicos, materiais e imateriais, natureza, força de trabalho, consumidores, saberes, cultura, normas, contradições, conflitos, contrastes, lógicas, instituições, atores sociais, entre outros, em configurações espaciais diferenciadas, ora fragmentadas, complementares, dinâmicas, adensadas, dispersas, difusas. O trabalho analisa o espaço rural do município de Oliveira em Minas Gerais para além da descrição e da dimensão da racionalidade setorial econômica e procura explicar a organização sócio-espacial da terra em uma perspectiva da complexidade e de articulação das múltiplas variáveis do espaço rural. Neste sentido, procura responder o problema de pesquisa de como famílias de agricultores no espaço rural do município de Oliveira, MG estruturam a organização sócio-espacial da terra, a relação com o ambiente, as ações frente as política públicas, as influências urbanas e a economia. Esta análise compreendeu a dinâmica espacial em seus múltiplos referenciais e escalas. Os objetivos se enredaram pela compreensão, análise e explicação do espaço rural a partir da organização social da terra. Empreendeu-se a análise dos diálogos, das políticas públicas, do ambiente e das ações dos atores sociais envolvidos com o espaço rural do município Adotou-se como método de pesquisa a observação, a entrevista e a análise de fontes secundárias. O espaço rural de Oliveira, MG apresenta processos de modificações e transformações na organização social da terra que englobam desde a trama institucional, os atores sociais, a política, o Estado, o mercado e o ambiente. Por conseguinte, a organização sócio-espacial da terra é uma construção dos atores sociais no cotidiano e em um determinado contexto. Estudar o espaço rural de Oliveira foi um descortinar de reminiscências empíricas em busca do crepúsculo da fragmentação do pensamento / Abstract: Space is a unique resource and its availability is a process of living and no human activity can take place without its appropriation permanent or temporary. The countryside is in a form-content use complex object inherited from the past, so in a way that meets sustainable worldviews, symbolic elements, material and immaterial nature, labor, consumers, knowledge, culture, norms , contradictions, conflicts, contrasts, logical, institutions, social actors, among others, in different spatial configurations, sometimes fragmented, complementary, dynamic, densely populated, scattered, diffuse. This study examines the rural municipality of Oliveira in Minas Gerais beyond description and the size of sectoral economic rationality and seeks to explain the socio-spatial organization of land in a perspective of complexity and coordination of multiple variables of the countryside. In this sense, attempts to answer the research problem of how farming families in rural areas of the municipality of Oliveira, MG structure the socio-spatial organization of the land, the relationship with the environment, the actions against the public policy, urban influences and the economy . This analysis included the spatial dynamics in its multiple references and scales. The goal is entangled by the understanding, analysis and explanation of rural social organization from the ground. Undertook the analysis of the dialogues, public policy, the environment and the actions of social actors involved in the rural areas of the city was adopted as a research method observation, interview and analysis of secondary sources. The rural de Oliveira, MG show processes of changes and transformations in the social organization of land that range from the plot institutional, social actors, politics, the state, market and environment. Therefore, the organization of socio-spatial land is a construction of social actors in everyday life and in a given context. Studying the rural de Oliveira was a disclosure of reminiscences empirical dusk in search of the fragmentation of thought / Doutorado / Planejamento e Desenvolvimento Rural Sustentável / Doutor em Engenharia Agrícola

Digital geographical information systems (GIS) are tools for handling spatial data. Initially developed in First World countries, the technology is fast being taken up as a tool for handling spatial information by many Third World countries. GIS has been used for any number of applications involving spatial data, one of its primary uses has been in various planning fields where the advantages offered to planners by the technology have been highlighted by a number of publications and studies. GIS has been actively used as an urban planning tool in South Africa since the mid-1980s, (Vosloo 1987) however its use as a tool for rural planning has not developed to the same extent. As early as 1986 reference was made to the possible advantages offered by GIS to rural planning in South Africa (Fincham 1986). Despite this early recognition, the use of GIS in the rural planning sphere remains negligible. This study examines the. possible reasons for this by attempting to answer the question, "is GIS appropriate to rural planning in South Africa?" A number of approaches to rural planning are practised in South Africa. This study examines the appropriateness of applying GIS to one of these approaches, rural community development planning. Components of the study included i) an examination of the issues affecting the use of GIS in the rural development field, achieved through the use of a literature and questionnaire survey and ii) a case study examining the feasibility of incorporating GIS as a tool to the Shixini Development Project, Transkei. The study does not examine the intricacies of rural development theory, but it does acknowledge the fact that the approach employed by an organisation to rural development will have important implications concerning the use of a GIS in a project. The approach adopted to a project affects amongst others the administrative structure, the planning process, the flow of spatial data and its use, and consequently the possible role of GIS. The Shixini Rural Development Project was classified as a community development project, and as a result the study concentrates on this approach to rural development. This may limit the study to a particular planning process, however most rural case studies will have certain aims and factors which are unique to its situation. In order to place the results of the Shixini case study in a wider context the results of the study are linked to the questionnaire and literature survey. From this basis the usefulness of GIS in the rural development sphere was examined. Available literature on GIS indicates that the majority of problems associated with GIS rarely reside with the technology itself but rather with its supporting mechanisms. The study identified and concentrated on these support mechanisms, both at the project level and what is referred to in the study as the operating environment in South Africa. The results of the study revealed that a number of problems exist with regard to the attitude with which GIS is regarded in development organisations. It was found that these attitudes are legitimately based on a number of problems associated with incorporating the technology into project based organisations. It was concluded that GIS was appropriate to rural community planning, but is presently limited to certain aspects of the planning process and possibly to certain applications.