Landlessness and Rural Poverty in Pakistan

Although reducing rural poverty has been the key agenda of economic reforms in Pakistan, the rural poverty continued to rise during the 1990s. The causes of rural poverty are complex and multidimensional. The rural poor are quite diverse both in the problems they face, and the possible solutions to these problems are also different. The paper uses the most recent household data set available—PIHS 2001-02—to examine the causes of rural poverty, as to what accounts for its persistence and what policy measures should be taken to alleviate it. Poverty estimates using official poverty line suggest the high prevalence of rural poverty ranging from 39 percent to 48 percent in all provinces. Rural poverty is found to be strongly correlated with lack of asset in rural areas. The unequal land ownership in the country is found to be one of the major causes of rural poverty, as poverty level was the highest among the landless households followed by non-agriculture households. The incidence of landlessness is common in rural areas. About 67 percent households own no land in the country. Unusually, just 0.3 percent households own 55 and above acres of land across the country, suggesting a highly skewed landownership pattern. Gini Coefficient of landholding suggests that Punjab has the most unequal landownership pattern, followed by the NWFP, Sindh, and Balochistan. The highly unequal land distribution seems to have resulted in tenancy arrangements such as sharecropping, resulting in high prevalence of absolute poverty particularly in Sindh. A broad-based land reform programme, including land redistribution and fair and enforceable tenancy contracts together with rural public works programmes and access to credit, is critical to reducing rural poverty in Pakistan.Poverty, Pakistan

Agricultural Productivity, Rural Poverty and Nutritional Security: A Micro Evidence of Inter-Linkages from Karnataka State

The inter-linkages amongst agricultural productivity, rural poverty and nutritional security have been analysed based on a study of Bagalkot district of Karnataka state using primary data for the agricultural year 2005-06 obtained from 120 farm households. The data have been processed using ratios, frequencies, percentages, regression analysis and probit model. Agricultural productivity has negatively and significantly influenced rural poverty at the farm level. Low agricultural productivity is the root cause of rural poverty. Household size and number of dependents therein have positively influenced rural poverty. Optimization of household size or increase in the number of earning members of the household would reduce poverty. Nutritional security is greatly influenced by the level of rural poverty. To upgrade the nutritional status of households, the study has suggested that effective poverty alleviation programmes aimed at enhancing agricultural productivity through transfer of productive assets instead of consumer goods to the poor, should be launched and effectively monitored. Agricultural credit being an important aspect of productivity, appropriate steps should be taken to increase the access of rural households to financial institutions.Agricultural and Food Policy,

The Challenges of Rural Poverty

In rural America today, more than one in seven residents lives in poverty. Poverty's causes are a complex interplay of individual characteristics and decisions, on the one hand, and the nature of the communities and economies in which people work and live, on the other. Leif Jensen, Diane McLaughlin, and Tim Slack, in their chapter in "Challenges for Rural America in the Twenty-First Century", show how poverty emerges in rural areas and offer suggestions about what can be done to bolster the incomes and well-being of rural residents.This issue brief is a joint product of the Rural Sociological Society and the National Coalition for Rural Entrepreneurship, a collaboration of four Regional Rural Development Centers: The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, the Southern Rural Development Center, the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, and the Western Rural Development Center. Funding was also made available from the Ford Foundation.This brief is part of a policy brief series by the Rural Sociological Society and the Regional Rural Development Centers that stresses the importance of community collective action and developing the capacity of people and organizations to meet the community's needsThe Rural Sociological Society and the Regional Rural Development Centers creates new Public Policy Issue Brief series based on its recent book, "Challenges for Rural America in the Twenty-First Century".The briefs synthesize the context and substance of important issues raised in the book and address alternative policy options, with the goal of bringing important research to the policy community

HUMAN RESOURCES/RURAL POVERTY

Food Security and Poverty,

Globalization and Rural Poverty

absolute poverty, self-employed, wage-employed, trade liberalization

Land Reform and Sustainable Development

Land reform, equitable distribution, economic development, environmental quality, land reform strategies, Brazil, Landless Workers’ Movement, East Asia, rural poverty, land productivity, sustainable agriculture, comparative advantage, small farms.Land reform, equitable distribution, economic development, environmental quality, land reform strategies, Brazil, Landless Workers’ Movement, East Asia, rural poverty, land productivity, sustainable agriculture, comparative advantage, small farms.

Does Land Reform Matter? An Empirical Analysis of Indian States

This article looks into the role of land reform in comparison to concentric effort to augment agricultural GDP. Redistributive land reform policy aims to improve land endowments of poor, though varies among states in respect to political will and implementation. Panel data of fifteen main states from 1980 to 2003 is used to understand whether land reforms have any appreciable impact on reducing rural poverty. An examination of effect of land reform along with agricultural GDP on rural poverty suggests that decrease in land concentration has greater impact on reducing rural poverty. A policy with combination of equitable economic progress and redistributive efforts is advocated.

Rural Poverty Dynamics, Agricultural Productivity and Access to Resources

The objectives of this paper are: measure the prevalence of rural poverty in 1997 and 2000, based on the nationwide Tegemeo survey; categorize households according to whether they were above the poverty line in both 1997 and 2000, entered into poverty or exited from poverty between 1997 and 2000, or were above the poverty line in both years; identifies the household-level and community-level factors associated with rural poverty through econometric analysis; and the implications of these results for the design of appropriate poverty reduction strategies. Such analysis is intended to guide donor programs and interventions designed to attack the roots of chronic poverty.Food Security, Food Policy, Kenya, Rural Poverty, Food Security and Poverty, Productivity Analysis, Q18,

Rural Poverty in Latin America

The fact that most poor people in Latin America live in urban areas had implied that poverty in the region is regarded as largely an urban phenomenon. However, this document exposes what available data suggest: that rural poverty still is significant in many Latin American countries.Social Development :: Poverty, Rural & Urban Development :: Rural Development, Rural Poverty in Latin America