Inequality and development in rural West Africa

Inequality seems to be a feature of all societies, but some are probably more equal than others. It is in Third World countries however where inequalities between particular areas, groups and individuals are most marked. The paper first traces the growing interest in both the study of inequality and the rural household as a focus of analysis. Some of the problems of measuring inequality are then considered and various indicators of inequality are examined with reference to empirical evidence from rural W Africa. The paper concludes that recent development strategies have often directly or indirectly led to greater rural inequality and makes suggestions as to how future projects might achieve greater impact in reducing the gap between rich and poor. Paper presented at Commonwealth Geographical Bureau, Workshop on Spatial Inequalities in the Developing World, Kano, Nigeria 16–20 September 1985     

Observations on the relevance of the industrial-Urban hypothesis for rural development

Rural development tends to be viewed as a facet of urban development in the sense that rural areas are expected to be recipients of positive urban spill-overs. To that end, two concepts have been formulated: growth centre theory and the Industrial-Urban Hypothesis (IUH). The former has been beset by conceptual problems whereas the simpler IUH has not been tested in a Canadian context. This paper tests the basic IUH proposition that the general level of rural development is an inverse function of urban accessibility. Findings suggest that the IUH is more attuned to the impacts of smaller centres rather than the region's metropolitan centre. However, introduction of an exogenous element based on ethnic variations in rural settlements indicate how socializing factors work to modify the IUH concept.     

Uneven development in Swaziland: Tibiyo,sugar production and rural development strategy

The main focus of this paper is on the unevenness of development between agro-industry and peasant production in Swaziland. The discussion opens with a brief account of Swaziland's dependence on South Africa and outlines the major sectors of the country's economy. This is followed by an analysis of the involvement of the royal aristocracy in the economy through Tibiyo Takangwane. The increasing dependence on sugar in the export sector epitomizes uneven development in Swaziland and is discussed in the third part of the paper. Rural development on land areas occupied by the Swazi peasantry contrasts with the growth of Tibiyo and the export sector and is analysed in the final part of the paper. In the context of deepening crisis tendencies, the conclusion poses the question as to whether alternatives exist for the planners of development strategy.     

城乡统筹发展中的土地利用问题探讨

城乡统筹中的土地开发利用,应当体现整体化、融合化、动态化的配置原则。要调整传统的城市规划化、土地国有化、农民市民化的城市化发展演进模式,改变目前城乡社会资源要素不均,衡配置和土地开发利用的双轨制,应当在发展思路、发展方式和发展机制上予以完善、改革和创新,可将统筹“两规”、统筹基础设施和公共服务用地,统筹农村低效土地利用作为切入口。     

Handicrafts in Oman and their role in rural community development

Oman has a long tradition of practising handicrafts, though few are of high aesthetic value. Omani handicrafts have always been functional, made for a rural population which has valued the artefacts for what they do but much less for their appearance. Nevertheless, handicraft skills are very widespread throughout the rural population. In the past they have been used to process raw materials of agricultural origin, notably from the date palm and from livestock, and also from wild trees and minerals. In addition to local resources, Omani craftsmen have worked imported cotton yarn and imported precious and semi-precious metals. The craftsmen not only provided equipment for rural producers and finished goods for domestic use but they also performed the important community roles of linking primary producer with primary producer and consumer, and making both more aware of the raw materials of the environment in which they lived. In doing this, craftsmen, with their mutually respected skills, played a vital role in creating the complex network of interdependencies from which a community is built. However, the Omani and other regional oil industries put great pressure on all rural activities, and particularly on the highly labour-intensive crafts. People sought work in the urban centres and in the armed forces at the same time as a flood of cheap imports prevented craftsmen from raising their prices to keep abreast of inflation and of heightened personal material aspirations. The impact of oil was so rapid that the craftsmen had no time to adapt their techniques or their products to meet the new circumstances. Craft growth and change needed government support to see it through a difficult transitional period. Unfortunately, however, the government of Oman has only played a small and somewhat confused role in the crafts. Many people can no longer practise their inherited skills and the role that they played in maintaining the community has been largely destroyed. Concentrated effort needs to be made, craft by craft, initially at a village scale, to train and to modify techniques where necessary and to expand market openings. Success in a single village can then form the basis of expanded regional or national projects, drawing in other resources such as credit from the Agricultural Bank and using the marketing networks of the Central Marketing Authority. An approach which has been used to redevelop spinning and weaving and to introduce irrigation channel manufacture in a coastal village in northern Oman is providing valuable information that could be used as the basis of other craft projects in Oman and in countries with comparable craft development problems.     

A rural development strategy for the Apuseni Mountains, Romania

The Apuseni Mountains, part of the Western Carpathians, are distinctive in cultural terms because of the highly dispersed settlement patterns that have developed on the high erosion surfaces where the Moti people cleared the forests to allow for an expansion of family farming in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These small ‘crang’ settlements remain, but the population is declining in the face of limited employment opportunities and poor services. The question arises as to the most appropriate rural development strategy for the region, following the communist period which encouraged centralisation through the provision of housing and industry in key villages and new towns. The emphasis on private farming and the expansion of tourism could protect the inherited cultural landscape but money must be found to improve rural services. There is also a strong conservation movement which supports the establishment of a national park, but this could constrain development through controls on grazing and woodcutting. Hence the dialogue continues to find the best compromise and the concept of a ‘natural park’ is being discussed with such a reconciliation in mind. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Village renewal and rural development in the former German Democratic Republic

This paper analyses the ‘Dorferneuerung’ or village renewal scheme - a key policy for rural development in the new ‘Länder’ of Germany which has been transferred from the old Länder. The contribution that Dorferneuerung can make to rural development is considered, with particular reference to the experience of participating villages in Sachsen-Anhalt. It concludes that Dorferneuerung has contributed much to improving the built environment but little to new job creation. It is indicative of the advantages and disadvantages of reunification for rural development in the new Länder.     

Population pressure and areas of potential rural development in Southern Nigeria

The spatial analysis of agricultural development is the necessary precondition for research in the rural landscape and for rural planning. Basic data emerging from field investigation and a systematic interpretation of aerial photographs have resulted in a series of thematic maps of Southern Nigeria and parts of Western Cameroon. This comprehensive research work has been organized within the framework of the Afrika-Kartenwerk of the German Research Society.In this paper our recently published population map of the scale of 1:1 million and the map of rural settlement patterns form the basis for some rather general estimates of agricultural potential. Exact spatial information of simple but non the less most important regional processes, like migration, are caused by population pressure. Not bare statistical figures but their transformation by cartographic means forms a fundament for area studies and hypothetical prospects for regional planning as well as for regional analysis.By larger scale observations agricultural carrying capacity, evaluation of rural potential, migration dynamics and changes of land-use systems have to be analyzed. This calls for meticulous studies of individual areas. The first of three such case studies stresses the process of intensification of land utilization near the Nsukka-Escarpment. Linear settlement patterns and chains of regular individually owned stripfields can be seen as inprints of a dynamic transformation within the cultural landscape. Reception of new agricultural technology has been a way for emigrant farmers to exploit traditionally sparsely utilized zones with rich soils, which had been less attractive, because they were hard to cultivate with the hoe.The second case deals with the well known migratory and agro-economic links between the overpopulated food crop belt of Northern Yoruba Savannah Country and the cocoabelt in the rain forest about 100 km further south.In Central Iboland rural overpopulation of more than 1000 persons per km² and land shortage theoretically could be diminished by opening up uninhabited areas of the Niger flood-plain and the delta for modern agricultural exploitation. But not only the physical obstacles such as there are poor soils, very high rainfall and seasonal floods within the Niger low lands are hindering rural colonization. Social and political factors, like ethnic traditions and historic barriers still seem to be very perserverant. All this hardly allows strangers to get hold of unused land, to exploit valuable natural resources or to introduce modern agricultural technology. But generally speaking, population pressure as well as higher demand for social services and better incomes result in changes in the traditional land-use systems. The impact of growing urban or industrial economic spheres on agriculture acts as accelerating factor in this development. A paradise-landscape for Africa where optimal utilization of all physical resources under best socio-economic conditions may be practiced and where more than ten times of the present population of Africa could exist, as CAROL puts it in one of his scenarios (1973 and 1975), seems to be quite unrealistic and really never will be desirable.     

Towards developing a geoscientific approach to sustainable agricultural and rural development

 Conventional practices employed to achieve sustainable agricultural and rural development (SARD) tend to be subjective, focus on effects rather than causes, and have little diagnostic or predictive value. Consequently, many of the management options and solutions adopted to restore degraded natural resources are, often, economically unviable and environmentally unsustainable. These shortcomings are believed to be caused, partly, by overlooking or insufficiently recognizing the role and importance of geology to SARD. This paper demonstrates that geology is the most critical factor in the genesis of biophysical resources and in determining sustainability of agricultural and rural development. A case study from Australia shows how geological principles can be employed to obtain goals of ecological sustainability. A geologically-based model for cold temperate regions is provided to assist resource users and managers in understanding and predicting the genetic influence of geology on the inherent potential, constraint and resilience of the biophysical resources. Received: 7 January 2000 · Accepted: 23 May 2000     

The role of tourism in rural development: Evidence from Iran

GeoJournal - Tourism can play an important role in diversifying the rural economy and its expanding in rural areas contributes to the sustainability of the population and the economy of these areas...     

Integrated development in a Nigerian rural environment: Issues of inter-disciplinary co-operation

This paper attempts a conceptual clarification of the term development in a national or regional context. It emphasizes the integrative and systemic nature of, as well as the underlying principle of social justice in, meaningful development efforts. Illustrating with a part of the Nigerian rural environment, the paper shows how certain problems of the rural communities can have region-wide, if not nation-wide, implications. The policy issues for effective remedial measures are outlined, and their effective implementation is shown to depend very much on carefully undertaken problem and resource evaluation and streamlined inter-disciplinary co-operation.     

Protected geographical indications: Institutional roles in food systems governance and rural development

This paper examines the importance of national-level institutional arrangements for promoting the EU’s Protected Geographic Indication scheme (PGI). Taking the example of Ireland, for which PGI designations remain comparatively low, it explores whether the approach to providing institutional supports to the PGI scheme is influenced by top-down technocratic governance structures that pertain to food safety and quality certification that encompass the broader operating environment for food production in Ireland. Although the regulation of food safety and quality certification are distinct remits to the administration of the PGI scheme, in the Irish context the same institutional bodies are involved in governance of both. Using a discourse analysis interpretative framework, this paper draws on interviews with Irish producer group members and institutional representatives to examine how governance of the PGI scheme reflects management perspectives and practices more in keeping with a regulatory environment for food safety and quality than with development of place-based food product links. It suggests that incentives to avail of the PGI scheme as a means of realising value-added for producers are not well established because they require the development of more subjective, context-dependent processes and practices linked to geographical place and place identity. These are not easily accommodated under current institutional arrangements that also incorporate food safety and quality remits because these are in turn strongly established through nationally and internationally recognised systems of regulation and benchmarking. The findings point to the benefits to be gained from a more layered governance structure for PGI; devolving operation of the scheme to relevant regional and local development organisations that possess the expertise and relevant local knowledge to (a) incentivise the formation of producer groups, and (b) prioritise mentoring and support for PGI concept development as a clearer reflection of bottom-up rural sustainability policy.     

Rural development and rural to urban migration in China 1978–1990

Economic reforms since the late 1970s have brought about significant changes in rural China. A large number of surplus rural labourers have been released from the agricultural sector and there has been a massive transition of rural residents from agricultural to non-agricultural employment. These changes will be analyzed by examining the changes in the employment structure of rural residents. Rural to urban migration is another important option for many rural labourers. The size of China's urban population and the scale of rural to urban migration continue to be an ‘enigma’ due to several changes in the definition of the urban population. Several data sources will be used to provide more realistic estimates of rural to urban migrations on a set of comparable though different bases. Data on the new entries into urban employment and the urban ‘non-agricultural population’ will be used to illustrate the scale of migration by rural residents to the formal urban sector. This may only record those migrants who have changed their registration status from ‘agricultural population’ to ‘non-agricultural population’ which is tightly controlled by the government. The 1990 Census data provide some evidence on the rural to urban migration by the registered ‘agricultural population’. The 1987 1% population sampling data will be used to analyze the actual migrations among cities, towns and counties over the period 1982–1987. It is found that town and county populations tended to move to towns at the intra-provincial level, but to cities at the inter-provincial level. Out-migrants from cities tended to move to cities at both the intra- and inter-provincial levels.     

Life histories in cyberspace: life writing as a development tool for rural women

Increasingly, information and communication technology (ICT) is being used as a development tool. For example, a recent innovative experiment by the FIDAMERICA development cybernetwork (sponsored by IFAD, the International Fund for Agricultural Development) in Latin America used an electronic network to collect, post and discuss rural women's life histories, intending to support gender mainstreaming in IFAD projects. However, cybernetworking processes can also reflect contradictory agendas and power relations that ultimately make them a site of contestation. In the FIDAMERICA case, the authors did not participate in the electronic conference, nor were there any subsequent efforts to connect them or to develop this process further.In this paper, I argue that the analysis of increasingly complex cybernetworked development efforts must incorporate a correspondingly sophisticated technique that can uncover the nuanced relations of transnational cyber communication; and I propose that an actor-network approach should be investigated as an analytical framework in these cases. I then apply this approach to the case study, using field research conducted with the participants of the FIDAMERICA electronic life history project in Central America. I conclude that an actor-network approach is a fruitful means by which these processes can be both understood and improved.     

Impact assessment due to rural electrification in hill tract of Bangladesh for sustainable development

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) of any project is essential for understanding the sustainability of the project. For sustainable development of hill tracts, electricity is inseparable. Like other parts of Bangladesh hill tracts districts felt increasing demand of electricity. In this paper an attempt has been taken to present the existing environmental condition and analysis the future environmental condition after implementation of project. Electrification will extend the length of the active day. Electrification will improve security (people’s perception of safety and security) at the region. The elements of the project identified as components for analysis are chosen based on DOE’s guideline. The study showed that 87% people say that they feel safer at night since being electrified. Impacts are classified on the basis of EPA’s scaling and DOE, university’s teachers, NGOs expert’s opinions. Value more than 10 is classified significantly affected element of the project. In this paper advantages and disadvantages of the Electrification Project has been presented.     

Transportation as a limitation to rural development: The case of Abak in Nigeria

Abak was opened by the colonial government as an administrative centre in the early 1900s. Since then the town and its surrounding areas are still rural in outlook. Development possibilities are very slim unless transportation is viewed seriously by both the government.The difficulty here is that the Kwa Iboe River with its tributaries that crosses the area has created transport bottlenecks. Entry into the area from the E, W and S is through narrow onelane bridges on the rivers. The inefficient transport development has led to difficulties in the movement of farm products to the market. The prices of manufactured goods are higher in the area than in other places about 12 or 14 kilometres away.     

Options in revitalizing village communities and rural community development strategies in the Republic of Cameroon

Organised village or farm communities in the Republic of Cameroon are excellent experimental grounds where adapted rural development strategies are succeeding. Success in such undertakings has been brought about by the fact that planners and policy makers are now taking time to discuss and plan wi3h the populations for whom the projects are meant. This method avoids performing in isolation, and overrides the diffusion of uncoordinated and fragmented ideas.