IFAD: Rural Enterprise Policy iv RATIONALE: MICRO AND SMALL ENTERPRISES AND POVERTY REDUCTION Role of the Off-Farm Sector in Reducing Poverty 2 Small-Scale Rural Enterprise and the Rural Economy 3 IFAD and Rural Enterprise 4 Role of the Off-Farm Sector vis-à-vis IFAD's Strategic Framework and Regional Strategies 5 DEVELOPING MICRO AND SMALL ENTERPRISES FOR THE POOR IN RURAL AREAS: DEFINITION, L...

Employing children to work in a family household or on a farm is a widespread phenomena in many countries worldwide. This paper presents the results of an investigation of the phenomenon of the involvement of children aged 11-14 years in work on family farms and in rural households in central and eastern Poland, a typical agricultural region. The data obtained are characterized by high reliabil...

This paper has examined three features of the rural economy in the context of transition of Indian economy: (a) shift in rural employment pattern, (b) trends in rural wages and agricultural growth, and (c) relationships between agricultural wages, productivity and rural non-farm employment (RNFE) in India. The change over of farm employment to non-farm employment has been found higher for male ...

We use recent farm household survey data from 5 Central European countries to explore the extent to which ill-functioning land and credit markets may present an obstacle to rural development. The first finding is that improved access to credit can, indeed, make a contribution to a more dynamic rural sector. A considerable share of rural households express their desire to expand agricultural cul...

We document the evolution of the income distribution in rural China, from 1987 through 1999, with an emphasis on investigating increases in inequality associated with transition and economic development. With a backdrop of perceived improvements in average living standards, we ask whether increases of inequality may have offset, or even threaten welfare gains associated with economic reforms. T...

Income from off-farm sources is especially important for land-poor households. However, the pattern of participation in off-farm activities is heterogeneous across space. We explore the determinants of participation in off-farm non-agricultural employment using data for rural Mexico. In particular, we try to understand how the neighborhood and the neighbors’ characteristics and choices affect t...

Subsistence farmers may not respond to market incentives if their resource allocation decisions are based on shadow prices. This may lead to “puzzling” results from an economic point of view if shadow prices are not taken into account. Subsistence maize farmers in rural Mexico are an example with their non-response to decreasing maize prices after NAFTA. I analyze the true value measure of maiz...

rural economy has an important role in rural sustainable development in every region or country. however, the rural economy in iran is too much depending on agriculture and development of other rural economy in particular nonfarm activities, has been neglected by iranian rural communities. therefore, the aim of this study was to identify the role of non-farm business on rural sustainable develo...

The emerging interest in household dietary diversity against dietary quantity presents an opportunity to estimate household food security. Using household cross-sectional survey data from rural communities in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa (N=181), the paper estimated determinants of rural household dietary diversity. Regression results suggest a positive influence of participation i...

Official tabulations from household survey data suggest rising income inequality in post-reform rural China, and this trend has been of public concern. However, the structural changes in the Chinese rural economy had not been properly reflected in the methods used for processing the raw survey data. Using micro data for four provinces, we find that two-thirds of the conventionally measured incr...