The purpose of this thesis will be to explore conceptions of waste in Nepal’s rural village of Simigaau to understand what constitutes waste and in what ways it is critical to the community’s physical and cultural survival. Due to the contribution of many aspects of daily life in the creation of “waste” in Simigaau –what it is and what it means – I hope to use a whole systems approach to understand the multitude of factors that affect how villagers view waste and whether its value can provide insight into a local way of life. Moreover, I aim to explore whether a community’s waste – seen and unseen – provide insight into a local way of life and if so, how this insight may be applied to both Nepal at large and connotations of “waste” in the West.

Agriculture revenue contributions to Ghana's gross domestic product have declined because of limited farm funding, which has constrained some smallholder rice farmers access credit to acquire necessary inputs, and to secure a stable market for their harvests. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore successful strategies some smallholder rice farmers in the Afadzato South District of Ghana used in obtaining farm funding. Data collection included semistructured, face-to-face interviews with 9 smallholder rice farmers who successfully obtained farm funding. Previous research, reports, and policies of the Ghana Ministry of Food and Agriculture served as additional data collection sources. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and resulted in three major themes: the smallholder farmer's strategy of belonging to cooperative association membership, the smallholder farmer's strategy for satisfying lender collateral requirements, and smallholder farmer's strategies for developing a repayment rating history. The implications for positive social change include the potential to guide the smallholder farmers to successful strategies to access farm funding for their farming activities and increase their farm sizes. The increase in farm sizes may result in more rice production that can help mitigate hunger and reduce poverty in the Afadzato South District of Ghana.

Climate change in the East African country of Uganda is causing severe variations in the once predictable seasonal weather patterns that farmers had come to depend on. This, in combination with social and economic challenges, has significantly increased the vulnerability of farmers who make up the majority of Uganda’s population. Previous knowledge and observations suggest that Ugandan farmers may be reluctant or slow to change their practices in response to the changing climate. Strategies are therefore needed to identify challenges and sustainable solutions. This research used qualitative data collection methods known as participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and participatory action research (PAR) over a seven-month period with two communities in western Uganda. One community was located in an urban area while the other was rural. Research methods were used to first identify real challenges specific to the community before developing strategies to solve them. Both of these steps were conducted in a bottom-up community-based way, utilizing the expertise of community participants. Overall, the main problems identified included degraded water resources, poor farm performance, gender issues, and health challenges. Most of these problems were not directly a result of climate change, but rather a combination of social and economic challenges like poverty and a lack of support from the government and other organizations. In both communities, sustainable solutions to major problems were created by increasing the overall knowledge, expertise, and cooperation among community participants in addition to improving access to local services. The actions taken resulted in a pilot project that improved water resources for the rural community. The approach was effective because it allowed the communities to advocate for themselves to create lasting change. This research builds upon a rapidly growing body of literature on the effectiveness of community-based efforts to solve real-life problems in struggling communities. Furthermore, these findings also challenge more traditional donor-driven approaches to development.

abstract: This study investigates the vulnerability of subsistence agriculturalists to food shortfalls associated with dry periods. I approach this effort by evaluating prominent and often implicit conceptual models of vulnerability to dry periods used by archaeologists and other scholars investigating past human adaptations in dry climates. The conceptual models I evaluate rely on an assumption of regional-scale resource marginality and emphasize the contribution of demographic conditions (settlement population levels and watershed population density) and environmental conditions (settlement proximity to perennial rivers and annual precipitation levels) to vulnerability to dry periods. I evaluate the models and the spatial scales they might apply by identifying the extent to which these conditions influenced the relationship between dry-period severity and residential abandonment in central Arizona from A.D. 1200 to 1450. I use this long-term relationship as an indicator of potential vulnerability to dry periods. I use tree-ring precipitation and streamflow reconstructions to identify dry periods. Critically examining the relationship between precipitation conditions and residential abandonment potentially sparked by the risk of food shortfalls due to demographic and environmental conditions is a necessary step toward advancing understanding of the influences of changing climate conditions on human behavior. Results of this study support conceptual models that emphasize the contribution of high watershed population density and watershed-scale population-resource imbalances to relatively high vulnerability to dry periods. Models that emphasize the contribution of: (1) settlement population levels, (2) settlement locations distant from perennial rivers, (3) settlement locations in areas of low average annual precipitation; and (4) settlement-scale population-resource imbalances to relatively high vulnerability to dry periods are, however, not supported. Results also suggest that people living in watersheds with the greatest access to and availability of water were the most vulnerable to dry periods, or at least most likely to move when confronted with dry conditions. Thus, commonly held assumptions of differences in vulnerability due to settlement population levels and inherently water poor conditions are not supported. The assumption of regional-scale resource marginality and widespread vulnerability to dry periods in this region of the U.S. Southwest is also not consistently supported throughout the study area. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Anthropology 2010

Thesis (MDev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2014 / Smallholder subsistence agriculture is regarded as an approach that can be adopted by poor rural households to meet their food and nutritional requirements. The practice of smallholder subsistence agriculture is a basis upon which poor households can enhance their household food security through increased incomes and food supply, ultimately generating extra income for other household needs. The present study discusses and analyses the importance of smallholder subsistence agriculture as an effective method easily available to households residing in rural areas to access food and incomes for household purposes. Hence, the study seeks to explore and analyses the role of smallholder subsistence agriculture in contributing to household food security in rural areas. Both primary and secondary data have been used to analyze the factors for the purpose of the study. The primary data were collected through a designed survey questionnaire administered to sampled smallholder subsistence farmers in the study area. This study used purposive sampling technique, through a transect walk, to draw households involved in smallholder subsistence agriculture in Maroteng Village. From the total population in the study area, only 100 households were selected for the purposes of the study. Both descriptive and qualitative techniques were used to analyze salient variables of the practice in order to give an insight of the important role the sector can play in addressing poverty, enhancing incomes and creating employment, consequently contributing to household food security in rural areas. The study shows that the participation on smallholder subsistence farming by households in rural areas could have positive impact on food security situations.

Thesis (M.A. Admin. (Development)) -- University of Limpopo, 2014. / Smallholder subsistence agriculture is regarded as an approach that can be adopted by poor rural households to meet their food and nutritional requirements. The practice of smallholder subsistence agriculture is a basis upon which poor households can enhance their household food security through increased incomes and food supply, ultimately generating extra income for other household needs. The present study discusses and analyses the importance of smallholder subsistence agriculture as an effective method easily available to households residing in rural areas to access food and incomes for household purposes. Hence, the study seeks to explore and analyses the role of smallholder subsistence agriculture in contributing to household food security in rural areas. Both primary and secondary data have been used to analyze the factors for the purpose of the study. The primary data were collected through a designed survey questionnaire administered to sampled smallholder subsistence farmers in the study area. This study used purposive sampling technique, through a transect walk, to draw households involved in smallholder subsistence agriculture in Maroteng Village. From the total population in the study area, only 100 households were selected for the purposes of the study. Both descriptive and qualitative techniques were used to analyze salient variables of the practice in order to give an insight of the important role the sector can play in addressing poverty, enhancing incomes and creating employment, consequently contributing to household food security in rural areas. The study shows that the participation on smallholder subsistence farming by households in rural areas could have positive impact on food security situations.

Cette recherche de doctorat étudie la relation entre la gestion informelle des risques de subsistance et l’allocation des terres agricoles. La gestion informelle des risques de subsistance est analysée ici comme explication potentielle de l'échec des politiques foncières de marché, et de la persistance de modes d'échanges `non-marchands'. En particulier, nous montrons que la vision bipolaire de l'allocation des terres opposant marchand et non-marchand n'est pas toujours pertinente pour l'analyse de la gestion des risques dans les pratiques foncières. Deux hypothèses sont analysées: en l'absence de moyens d'assurance publique ou privée, la terre prend une valeur de sécurité sociale qui peut détourner les ménages de la vente et leur faire préférer des transferts non-marchands ou temporaires, protégeant mieux la valeur assurance de la terre. Ensuite, des pratiques foncières hybrides, ni purement marchandes ni non-marchandes, se développent pour combiner la gestion des risques de subsistance avec d'autres motivations économiques. Ces hypothèses sont étudiées dans deux contextes: au Vietnam d'abord où les ménages les plus stables ou ceux subissant des chocs sévères vendent leur terre. En Thailande ensuite où, grâce à des données collectées sur le terrain, nous confirmons le rôle des stratégies de gestion des risques de subsistance dans l'activité ralentie des marchés de vente, et identifions ces fameuses pratiques foncières hybrides (ici des locations déguisées) . En conclusion, le développement de la protection (privée ou publique) des moyens de subsistance pourrait jouer un rôle privilégié dans l'évolution des modes d'allocation foncière. / This PhD research proposes to study the relationship between informal risk-coping strategies and the nature of land allocation. Informal risk-coping mechanisms are studied here as one potential factor in the failure of land market reforms and the persistence of `non-market' exchange -gifts or free loans. In particular, we show that the bipolar view of land tenure, which opposes `customary' to `market' transfers, does not adequately approach informal risk-coping motivations in land transfers. Two hypotheses are analysed: first, in the absence of insurance markets and public social protection, land has a `safety net' function and households do not sell land but prefer other types of transfers (which retain part of the land's `safety net' function). Secondly, informal risk-coping leads households to participate to hybrid forms of transfers (neither market nor non-market) allowing to combine risk-coping motives with other types of economic necessities. Those two hypotheses are then looked at empirically in two case studies: in Vietnam, where households sell their land only if they are economically stable or have suffered income shocks (distress sales); and in Thailand, where a survey has been done among permanent rural-urban migrants. This surveyconfirms that informal risk-coping slows down land sale markets and sustains transfers such as free-loans. Finally, the Thai data identify traditional risk-sharing institutions in the allocation of land, especially through intra-family free-loans or `disguised rentals'. As a main conclusion, insurance and public protection policies could have a key role in the evaluation of land allocation systems in Thailand and Vietnam.

Ce travail aborde l’enjeu du vivrier marchand dans la lutte contre la pauvreté des ménages dans l’espace rural du département de la Mvila. L’agriculture vivrière est encore pratiquée par plus de 80% de la population active dans les villages de la Mvila. Pendant longtemps, les cultures vivrières sont exclusivement autoconsommées dans la cellule familiale. Aujourd’hui, s’il est vrai qu’une grande partie de leur production est encore destinée à cette fin, quelques ménages font progressivement du vivrier marchand une réelle ressource économique. L’augmentation de la commercialisation vivrière est souvent une réponse à la baisse du pouvoir d’achat de nombreux ménages agricoles ou à la croissance de la population urbaine non agricole. Cependant, indépendamment des motivations qui guident le choix du vivrier marchand, il semble souvent une opportunité financière qui peut contribuer à l’amélioration des conditions de vie dans les villages. Depuis 1960, l’État multiplie des tentatives visant à réduire les stéréotypes qui associent exclusivement l’agriculture vivrière à l’autoconsommation. Après la crise agricole de la fin des années 1980, la relance de la promotion du vivrier marchand s’intensifie. Pour atteindre cet objectif, il s’ensuit la légalisation des GIC et le financement de divers programmes de subventionnement et d’accompagnement des producteurs. Pourtant, dans les villages du département de la Mvila, la commercialisation vivrière évolue timidement. Et pour beaucoup de ménages, le vivrier marchand reste une source de revenus accessoire. Par conséquent, de façon générale, la contribution de cette activité à la réduction de la pauvreté rurale est encore insuffisante. De nombreuses raisons permettent de comprendre l’insuffisance des résultats de cette stratégie gouvernementale de lutte contre la pauvreté rurale. Il s’agit par exemple de la dépendance paysanne à la cacaoculture ou de la baisse des dynamiques des ménages ruraux autour de la commercialisation vivrière. Cette situation est aussi entretenue par l’absence de modernisation des appareils productifs et commerciaux des cultures vivrières. Un environnement qui entraîne une baisse des volumes, augmente les risques et diminue la rentabilité économique de cette activité. Et, malgré l’évidence de quelques dynamiques des organisations paysannes, l’ampleur des défis actuels restreint beaucoup la faisabilité des initiatives de lutte contre la pauvreté des ménages ruraux avec le vivrier marchand. / This research examines the role of food-producing trade in fighting against poverty in the rural households of Mvila division in Cameroon. Subsistence agriculture appears to be the principal production activity in the target villages 80% of the active population interviewed is involved in such activities. For a long time, self-consumption has been the main orientation of crop production. However, food-producing trade has gained a lot of economic importance these last years. By so doing farmers find alternative income source after cocoa price has dropped while the urban population, not involved in agriculture, has significantly increased. Regardless of the motivations behind the choice of farmers, food-producing trade leads to income diversification and financial power aiming at improving the living conditions of rural people. Since 1960, the central government of Cameroon has been trying to change believes that restrict food crop production to self-consumption in the households. The crucial economic crisis associated with agricultural export products led to Food-producing trade intensification. This objective has been accompanied by Common Group Initiative (CGI) encouragement and other financing subsidy bodies in the rural areas. It is however worthy noticing that, the villages of Mvila division are far to emerge in income generating activities as many households are still timid in adopting food-producing trade. Therefore, the contribution of such activities to poverty reduction is still insufficient. This kind of contradiction can be justified by several factors, including farmer dependence on cocoa farming or farmer fatigue on agriculture and marketing in general. This situation is also sustained by the lack of modernization of the productive and commercial food crop equipments. That global environment leads to decrease of agricultural production volumes and economic return while the risks increase in rural areas. Although some farmer organizations obtain good results, the scale of the current challenges greatly restricts the feasibility of rural households' poverty alleviation initiatives.

The diploma thesis titled Barriers of Development in Ethiopia: Structural Conditions and Strategies for Adaptation is focused on analysis of environmental risk factors and their impact on economic development of Ethiopia. It further evaluates the effectiveness of concrete adaptation measures on both official policy level and community level. The thesis departs from refined version of Jared Diamond's five point framework for analysis of collapse of complex societies. Contemporary scholarly discourse of rapid population growth, deforestation & land degradation and climate variability is formalized into causal schemes and supported by current statistical data. The thesis concludes that adopted measures have had only limited effect on elimination of the respective risk factors. Thus, Ethiopia remains a long-term recipient of foreign humanitarian assistance, without which it would fall into state of economic collapse. To overcome this situation Ethiopia needs to transform its subsistence agricultural production system.

Past development efforts in the Kingdom of Tonga are reviewed in relation to the goals of reducing poverty, unemployment and inequality. It is shown that progress has been strictly limited and evidence is provided to support the view that inadequate attention has been paid to agricultural improvement and rural development. The components, practices and institutional framework of the Tongan agricultural system are reviewed and possible future avenues of agricultural development are examined. Attention is drawn to those aspects where improvements are needed if agricultural development is to be promoted. These include an expanded programme of research, an upgrading of the agricultura1 extension effort, an overhaul of the 1and tenure system and a substantial improvement in agricultural product marketing; or, in short, an integrated programme of agricultural improvement and rural development. From a planning viewpoint, there is evidence of inadequate elaboration of development objectives, superficial identification of resources and insufficient knowledge concerning resource interactions, all of which have created confusion and uncertainty, particularly as regards the role of agriculture in the Kingdom's development. As a result, there is a lack of commitment to development efforts generally, and a tendency for activities on the fringes to be pursued at the expense of more fundamental issues. It is concluded that this situation results largely from the lack of an adequate information base, and that before an integrated plan for agricultural improvement can be developed, the network of interrelationships operating within the agricultural system needs to be understood. An information system is developed with the basic aim of providing information which will facilitate an understanding of how the agricultural system is integrated into the everyday lives of the people of Tonga. The concept adopted recognises the reciprocal relationships involved between agriculture and the rest of the economy. Using a systems research framework, the Tongan household agricultural system is defined in terms of its component parts, their interactive behaviour and their interrelationships. The key variables required for analysis are isolated and the production relationships in which rural households participate are specified. The information system provides for the observation of household decision making with particular reference to the allocation of labour, land use and the disposal of farm produce, and the disposition of cash earnings. The information framework is based on the premise that land is the most critical resource in Tongan agriculture. Information requirements are specified which will enable an assessment to be made of the effect of a number of factors on 1and productivity. The data collected will also enable valuable insights to be gained into issues such as land utilisation and methods of production; composition and disposition of agricultural output; household food consumption; marketing of agricultural produce; land tenure; sources of household income; net incomes from agriculture; participation in aid projects; and utilisation of loan finance.