This is a study about rural households making a living from a declining natural resource base and surviving in a changing rural economy in rural Philippines. Informed by the political ecology and feminist environmentalism theoretical frameworks, the study uses empirically-based theorizing to elucidate social factors that influence household resource management strategies. Interactions of class and gender relations, the coexistence of market and nonmarket relations, and the power of social networks are among the social constructs that shape the everyday choices and decisions of household resource users. The findings of this study suggest that a "technological fix" model to address resource degradation is not the answer. I conclude by stating that building social capital and engendering local control of resources are keys to sustainable natural resource management. / Ph. D.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This case study of three rural villages in Matatiele district in the Eastern Cape, South Africa examines the extent to which the diversification of rural livelihoods and processes of social differentiation are interconnected. The study combines intensive and extensive research methods to explore livelihoods diversification and social differentiation in the villages of Litichareng, Mutsini and Thaba Chicha. The intensive research consisted of 36 life history interviews, a wealth ranking exercise and a focus group discussion. The extensive research consisted of a survey of 124 households. The study makes use of political economy concepts of class, power and inequality and argues that these concepts enhance the heuristic value of livelihoods approaches which have often been critiqued for under-theorising power and politics. In the contemporary capitalist world, particularly in the global ‘South’, livelihoods have increasingly become diversified as rural households combine agricultural and non-agricultural sources of income for both survival and accumulation purposes, often straddling the rural-urban divide. In the ‘ de-agrarianisation’ thesis, livelihood diversification has been interpreted as entailing a shift from agrarian livelihood systems to non-agrarian modes of existence in the context of increased urbanisation and industrialisation. These kinds of large-scale processes have been unfolding in rural Matatiele, but this study argues that rural households combine both agricultural and non-agricultural sources of income and emphasises the continued importance of agricultural sources of income in rural livelihood systems. De-agrarianisation is cyclical and not unilinear, as some components of farming have remained important and resilient (homestead garden cultivation and livestock production) while other have declined (dry-land cropping in large arable fields).These shifts in agriculture occur against the background of state-sponsored, large-scale agricultural development schemes introduced to commercialise agriculture and reverse de-agrarianisation and fragmentation of rural livelihoods, but which have largely failed to do so. The challenge for scholars is how to characterise rural households, small-scale farmers, or ‘peasants’ in the light of highly diversified livelihood systems and their straddling of the rural and urban divide. This study uses a political economy approach and defines rural households that engage in small-scale agriculture as petty commodity producers in capitalism, combining class places of capital and labour and subject to social differentiation. The study argues that the highly diversified livelihood systems characteristic of rural households reflect a ‘crisis of social reproduction’ as rural households struggle to survive and accumulate. In this study it is argued that rural households are part of growing ‘classes of labour’ within contemporary capitalism.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters Of Arts in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Zululand, 2018 / The main aim of this study was to establish an association between social grants and access to sufficient food within beneficiary households and how these households cope with food insecurity. A data set of 100 respondents from uMhlathuze city was used to determine the effectiveness of social grants. Firstly, the results of the regression analysis show the relationship between characteristics of the household caregiver such as gender, educational attainment, marital status and employment status, with food (in) security. The intention was to determine whether such features reduce or augment household access to adequate food, and it was discovered that most of these characteristics do not significantly affect food (in) security levels. Households running out of food, the skipping of meals and reasons for skipping meals were used as predictors of food insecurity. Also, other methods were utilised to comprehensively assess the significance of social grants, such as: reviewing how the households utilised the income from the grants, the percentage contribution of the grants to the general household income and what other sources of income the households had. It was evident that grant income was pooled amongst household members to support various household necessities other than food. When households received grants, they spent them on food, education, medical costs, clothes, payment of loans, water bills, starting a small business and building a home, and very few could afford to make savings or investments. The majority of households admitted that they would be incapable of surviving without the grants, as they were a necessary contribution towards food access. It had been fully established that households were food insecure and sometimes hungry; therefore, there was a necessity for assessing the types of adopted coping strategies. Unfortunately, many used mechanisms that were harmful to the households in the long run, such as taking loans, skipping meals and purchasing cheap food. To assess the importance of caregiver characteristics for food security, a simple correlation analysis was used. It was discovered that the progression of food insecurity does not subside or grow within the household on account of caregiver socio-demographic characteristics. They were ineffectual in sufficiently achieving food access. In conclusion, social grant beneficiary households at Umhlathuze are food insecure. This is an unfortunate state of affairs, as access to sufficient food is a basic human right, according to Section 27 of the South African Constitution.

Thesis (M.A. (Administration and Development)) --University of Limpopo, 2010 / Feminist studies show that gender inequality is an impediment for livelihoods diversification among rural households. Whereas women are understood to be the designers, planners and managers of livelihoods for household survival, their roles in diversification of the means of earning a living are generally undermined through a myriad of social and cultural laws, values, norms and beliefs. Despite the publicity, attempts and efforts in redressing gender inequality in a demographic South Africa, the dissertation argues that gender inequality in rural areas has remained persistent, posing an obstacle to the capacity of households to diversify their livelihoods. The study uses survey results from Sebayeng Village in order to demonstrate that the community’s perceptions of women’s roles perpetuate the status quo wherein women’s capacity to diversify livelihoods are undermined. The survey involved 200 households that were sampled through the simple random design. The respondents consisted of 56.5% females and 43.5% males. The survey results demonstrate that gender inequality remains deep in Sebayeng Village and that such inequality negatively affects the ability of households to diversify their livelihoods. Therefore, this study tends to confirm the general principle that gender inequality renders women as unexplored resources in rural development. To that extent, the study concludes that one of the tests for the success in gender transformation in South Africa is in releasing the energies of women in the sphere of livelihoods diversification.

Thesis (MPA) --University of Limpopo, 2010 / Rural households have always faced a variety of risks which rendered them vulnerable to poverty; hence, they have continuously adopted different risk-spreading strategies aimed at reducing and/or de-concentrating the risks that they face. However, there is always a chance that risk-spreading strategies adopted by rural households could intensify or increase the levels of vulnerability to poverty, because most of them are too informal and ineffective. The study examines different risks that households in the rural areas face, including their implication for levels of vulnerability to poverty. The effects of risk-spreading strategies on household level of vulnerability are analysed using a sample of 100 households from Tsianda village. The survey results reflect that a variety of risks faced in the village have a cumulative effect on households’ vulnerability to poverty. However, the risk-spreading strategies appear to be more helpful for the better-off households than for the poor, because the former experience short-term risks whereas the latter face apparently multiple perpetual risks. The village’s political, social, economic, cultural, institutional, technological and environmental contexts seem to perpetuate the status quo against the efforts of the poor households. The study concludes that the political,social, economic, cultural, institutional, technological and environmental contexts in the rural area have a huge impact on the concentration of risks that households face, the risk-spreading that they adopt and also their level of vulnerability to poverty. Hence, the poorer households’ risk-spreading strategies are not effective to reduce and de-concentrate the risks; moreover theyintroduce them to new risks and high level of vulnerability to poverty. / University of Limpopo

This project examines the efficiency of a biochar-producing stove in meeting the needs of households in rural of Kenya. The stove has been tested and evaluated by five household in Embu, Kenya and compared with two other common cooking methods. The main parameters were time consumption, fuel consumption and emissions of carbon monoxide and particulate matter. Usability and energy use efficiency have also been evaluated. Three potential feedstocks have been examined for use in the biochar-producing stove; Grevillea prunings, maize cobs and coconut husks. The biochar-producing stove was well received by the households. It has potential of saving time, it saves fuel and it has a significantly lower level of emissions than other examined stoves. Despite some challenges related to the usability and the handling of the stove, an implementation of the biochar-producing stove can contribute to an alleviation of the women’s burdens, save fuel and contribute to a healthier indoor air climate.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Agricultural Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2015 / Saving is important in the economy as it has linkages with growth, development and sustainability. The poor average saving rate in the rural economy has restricted the capacity of rural development in South Africa. The study focuses on comparing rural and urban household savings behaviour in South Africa, using household data from the Income and Expenditure Survey (IES) for the period 2010/2011. The dynamic linear saving functions originating from the Absolute Income and Permanent Income Hypotheses were estimated separately for the different household types using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method. Panel data analysis was carried out by pooling together the cross-sectional household types over the twelve-month period. The study established that urban households earn higher incomes and have more average savings than rural households in South Africa. A positive significant relationship was found to exist between current saving decisions and income across all household types in South Africa. Another interesting finding was that rural households have more marginal saving rates than urban households in the short-term and in the long-run. The Fixed Effects Model was deemed to be the best estimator in estimating saving functions across all household types in South Africa, as validated by the Hausman and Redundant Fixed Effects tests. Given that rural households have a potential to save, the study recommends increased awareness and education of rural households on the benefits of accessing basic financial services. Policy-wise, the study recommends the government to increase support in agriculture and extend the provision of food and health subsidies to rural households in South Africa.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第24907号 / 農博第2570号 / 新制||農||1102(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院農学研究科森林科学専攻 / (主査)教授 柴田 昌三, 教授 松下 幸司, 教授 德地 直子 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

Thesis (M.A. Agricultural Science (Agricultural Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / Livelihood diversification in South Africa has become the backbone for many of the households‟ in rural areas and it is perceived as a strategy to cope with the growing population and the rapidly increasing poverty rate. A sizeable number of rural households in South Africa work two or more jobs to generate more income. This serves as a strategy to alleviate their poverty. In spite of these, it is evident that poverty and high rate of unemployment are still prevalent in the rural Capricorn District. Thus, this study examined the nexus between poverty and diversification of livelihoods and to ascertain whether the different livelihood diversification strategies engaged in make rural households better-off or worse-off in the study area. A multistage and simple random sampling technique was employed to collect data from a sample of 216 respondents. Analytical techniques employed were descriptive statistics, FGT Poverty Index and the Probit Regression Model. Nine variables were included as explanatory variables in the Probit Regression and only six variables (gender of the respondents, marital status of the respondents, years of formal education, household size, livelihood index and member of association) were found to be significant at 10%, 5%, 1%, 10%,1% and 5%, respectively. Based on the findings, the study recommends that the diversification of livelihood strategies needs to be strengthened among rural households, investment in formal and vocational training should be intensified to increase rural households‟ participation in more viable livelihood options in the study area.

Il cambiamento climatico e la pressione antropica sulle risorse idriche rendono le politiche di gestione dell’acqua primordiali nell'agenda dei policy makers. Nel mio lavoro, inizialmente, presento una rassegna della letteratura in materia di modelli di Equilibro Generale Calcolabile (CGE) che incorporano l’acqua. In tale ambito, propongo la seguente classificazione: (i) la concorrenza tra i settori per l’uso di acqua; (ii) le politiche di prezzo e delle tariffe sull’acqua, (iii) l'acqua e le questioni commerciali, (iv) i modelli CGE ed altri modelli. In secondo luogo, analizzo gli effetti della siccità per l'economia del Kenya attraverso un modello CGE statico, calibrato sulla Matrice di Contabilità Sociale (SAM) del Kenya (2003). Il Kenya è stato scelto perché Paese particolarmente esposto a ricorrenti siccità (ad esempio negli anni 1994, 1998-2000, 2001 e 2003) che hanno duramente colpito le popolazioni più vulnerabili del paese, cioè quelle concentrate nelle zone aride e semiaride (ASAL). Inoltre, propongo l'introduzione di schemi di tassazione, al fine di produrre un extra-reddito che possa essere reinvestito per aumentare l'efficienza del settore idrico in Kenya o per trasferimenti alle famiglie rurali più povere. Infine, riproduco l'attuazione del progetto “Arid Land and Resource Management Project” (ALRMP) di FAO e Banca Mondiale. I risultati mostrano che, in primo luogo, gli effetti di una riduzione della dotazione di acqua sono più robusti di quelli derivanti da un aumento della dotazione d'acqua. In secondo luogo, la simulazione di uno scenario di siccità - in cui non solo la dotazione di acqua, ma anche la disponibilità di terra e la produttività di attività selezionate sono ridotti - fornisce un quadro più coerente dei risultati. In terzo luogo, tassare “raw water” (il fattore di acqua) può influenzare negativamente i redditi degli abitanti delle zone rurali. Infine, Il ALRMP ha un impatto positivo sulla riduzione degli effetti negativi della siccità sulle ASAL in Kenya. / Climate change and human pressure on water resources make water management policies primordial in the agenda of policy makers. I first propose a literature review of the works on Water Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Models suggesting the following classification: (i) competition between sectors; (ii) water pricing policies and tariffs; (iii) water and trade issues; (iv) CGE and other models. Secondly, the effects of droughts on the Kenyan economy are studied by means of a static CGE model, calibrated on the 2003 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) of Kenya. As a water scarce Sub-Saharan country, Kenya is among those countries considered particularly exposed to drought problems. This has been witnessed in recent years by several recurring droughts (1994, 1998-2000, 2001, and 2003) which have harshly hit the most vulnerable part of the country, namely the Arid and Semi Arid Lands (ASAL). Besides, I propose the introduction of several taxation schemes in order to produce an extra revenue to be either reinvested in increasing the efficiency of the water sector in Kenya, or redistributed to the poorest rural households. Finally we simulate the implementation of the UN-FAO and World Bank “Arid Land and Resource Management Project” (ALRMP). The results show that, firstly, the effects of reducing water endowment are stronger than when increasing water endowment. Secondly, simulating a drought scenario – where not just water endowment but also availability of land and the productivity of selected activities are reduced - gives a more coherent picture of the outcomes. Thirdly, taxing raw water (the water factor) may negatively affect rural dwellers as they are owners of water resources. Finally, I found that the ALRMP has a positive impact on mitigating the negative effects of droughts in Kenyan ASAL.