Rural Nonfarm Employment in Developing Countries

Abstract

Discussions of rural development policy are for the most part focused on the tenurial, institutional, technical, infrastructural, and economic aspects of agricultural development. In contrast, nonfarm activities in agricultural regions receive little attention, and a number of models of agrarian economies with nonfarm activities have even predicted a decline of such activities with agricultural development.' In this paper we show that nonfarm activities in agricultural regions expand quite rapidly in response to agricultural development and merit special attention in the design of rural-and also of urban-development strategies. The poorest groups of the world's rural population include those who depend on nonfarm activities as a source of employment and income. Nonfarm activities also supply a range of goods and services to agriculture and the rural population, contributing to the growth of agricultural output and the improvement in living conditions in rural areas. Finally, the concentration and growth of nonfarm activities in rural towns localizes employment opportunities for people who leave agriculture and acts to stimulate a degree of decentralization of urban growth.