Livelihood Shocks Research Articles

Debt, land and labour: Cambodian migrant workers’ precarious livelihood strategies

This article examines how livelihood security is co-produced through multiple strategies in Southeast Asia’s agrarian transformation, by considering the case of Cambodian migrant workers, who cobble together their livelihood through a combination of land, labour and debt. These workers leverage small landholdings as collateral to take on debts to finance migration to Thailand, where low wages and insecure employment inhibit their ability to repay such debts. The traditional social welfare role of land as a safety net is superseded by the use of land as collateral to access microfinance loans, which are also commonly used to respond to livelihood shocks. In this financialised context, social protection schemes insufficiently address the combined livelihood risks that are assumed by workers and do not provide meaningful protection to workers. Drawing on field interviews, we argue that these various supposed sources of livelihood security rather act to increase precarity for workers, by exacerbating labour discipline and dependence on employers.

Diversification strategies have a stabilizing effect for income and food availability during livelihood shocks: Evidence from small-scale aquaculture-agriculture systems in Myanmar during the COVID-19 pandemic

CONTEXTDiversification is an important strategy used by millions of small-scale food producers globally to improve yields, farm profitability, and food security. Diversification can also enable small-scale producers to cope better with livelihood shocks. However, it is not always clear through which pathways diversification practices can stabilize livelihoods and food security in small-scale production systems, especially in the context of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVEIn this study we examined whether and how diversification practices stabilized income and food availability in small-scale food production systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. The diversification practices explored in this study included fish polyculture and integrated aquaculture-agriculture (IAA), and their combination. We compared small-scale systems employing different combinations of these diversification strategies, with systems that did not contain them. METHODSWe analyzed 300 surveys of small-scale aquaculture producers in Myanmar. Structural equation modeling was applied to examine the multivariate relationships between the adoption of diversification practices among the small-scale producers, and whether and how the adoption stabilized their livelihoods during the COVID-19 pandemic in Myanmar. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSWe find that the integration of diversification practices in different small-scale aquaculture-agriculture (SSAA) production systems had generally positive effects for the stabilization of income, food availability or both during the COVID-19 pandemic. The novelty of the study is the unraveling of the differentiated pathways between production models that enabled these stabilization processes emerge. We find major divergences in the stabilization potential between polyculture and IAA, both in terms of the magnitudes of the stabilization effects and the pathways. Polyculture generally offered more significant stabilizing effects than IAA. Surprisingly the highest and more significant positive effects for the stabilization of food availability came through the purchase of food items from extra fish/crop income, rather than their increased self-consumption. SIGNIFICANCEOverall, the SSAA production systems combining different diversification practices could form proactive strategies to help small-scale food producers cope with livelihood shocks.

Agriculture land use transformation: A threat to sustainable food production systems, rural food security, and farmer well-being?

The acquisition of agricultural land is a crucial aspect of survival for numerous rural communities, serving as a fundamental tool for combating poverty and food insecurity and promoting equitable sustainable economic progress. The expropriation of land offers a promising prospect for remedying past inequities and promoting both economic progress and food sufficiency. Limited research has examined the association between land expropriation and food security, livelihood shocks, and the well-being of rural households worldwide. Therefore, this research explores the implications of land expropriation on food security, livelihood shocks, and well-being of land lost rural communities. The data were collected from 384 farmers selected through stratified sampling techniques using face-to-face surveys in rural China. The data were analyzed using descriptive and logit regression models. The descriptive findings showed that land expropriation has detrimental effects on the livelihood, food security, and well-being of the farmers. Furthermore, these impacts are more harmful among land-expropriated households with a lower educational level, a large family size, and women farmers in less developed rural communities. The econometric results evinced that gender, age, education level, marital status, family size, and negative changes in income all significantly affect the impact of land expropriation on the food security of farmers. Similarly, the findings revealed that farmers with lower education levels were more likely to be affected by land loss as compared to farmers with medium and high education levels. Farmers with complete land loss were 1.70 times more likely to suffer livelihood shocks than those with partial land loss. The results also evinced that the well-being of all farmers was not affected equally, and some farmers' well-being was affected more than others due to various socioeconomic backgrounds. Therefore, this study suggests the implementation of public policies that provide support to farmers who have been marginalized due to land acquisition.

Spillover Effect of Surface Mining on Cocoa Farming in The Wassa Amenfi East and West Districts, Ghana.

Purpose: Based on the resource curse paradox, we argued that farmers are crowded out due to their lower marginal propensity to bargain, making them vulnerable to livelihood shocks. Consequently, we examined the spillover effect of surface mining on cocoa farmers in the Wassa Amenfi East and West districts. Design/Methodology/Approach: Using a mixed research design, a total sample of 758 farmers were proportionately sampled from 14 purposively selected communities from Wassa Amenfi East and West districts. In addition, community extension agents, chief farmers and opinion leaders were formed into a focus group for discussion. The quantitative data were presented using descriptive statistics and the Wilcoxon Sign Ranked test and triangulated with emergent issues from the focus group discussions. Research Implications/Limitations: The study largely focused on cocoa farmers who were affected by surface mining. As a result, the findings of this study were interpreted within that scope unless they are confirmed by studies that involve a cross-section of cocoa farmers. Findings: We found that the livelihoods of cocoa farmers have deteriorated due to significant reductions in cocoa farm sizes and yields attributed to surface mining activities in the districts. Generally, cocoa farmers willingly gave out farmlands to miners to receive a bulk sum of money. The processes involved in the computation and payment of compensation were not in line with protocols enshrined in the Minerals and Mining Act 703 of Ghana and the tenets of the entitlement theory of justice. Practical Implications: Sustainable land-use planning is a crucial element in mitigating the negative impacts and fostering resilient cocoa-farming communities in the affected districts. Based on this the study highlights the need for a comprehensive approach that addresses environmental and economic challenges. Social Implications: The social implication of the study lies in the ability of cocoa farmer groups to advise their members against giving out their cocoa farms to surface miners and to make them aware that cocoa trees are heritage cash crops that are for use by current and future generations. Originality/Value: The paper contributes to the debate on the weakness of mining laws in protecting vulnerable groups with a focus on surface mining that crowds out farmers from the land market and dislocates them from their livelihood activities.

Mining-induced displacement and livelihood resilience: The case of Marange, Zimbabwe

Mining activities are increasingly causing mass displacement of people around the world. These displacements largely affect poor rural families, which, are forced to bear the brunt of displacement and the loss of livelihood assets. The loss of land and other productive livelihood assets exacerbates the vulnerability of displaced people to livelihood shocks and poverty. In Zimbabwe, neoliberal extractive investment enclaves have led to the displacement of thousands of families. Much of what we know about mining-induced displacement is the vulnerability and suffering of displacement victims. This dominant scholarship reduces displaced people to passive and helpless victims of displacement. However, little is known about the resilience and ingenuity of internally displaced people. In the absence of adequate compensation and social support from the state, how do displaced people sustain their livelihoods? This article, through an ethnographic study, attempts to address this and related questions by examining the individual and collective resilience of the displaced Chiadzwa people in Marange, eastern Zimbabwe. We show how displaced people use their agency to rebuild local self-support systems that sustain(ed) livelihoods.

Everyday mobility and changing livelihood trajectories: implications for vulnerability and adaptation in dryland regions

Dryland regions are highly dynamic environments in which multiple pressures intersect, threatening livelihood security. Mobility is an integral feature in these environments and represents a key risk management strategy for people to respond to frequent livelihood shocks and stresses. Global environmental change scholarship has tended to articulate spatial and temporal change inadequately, portraying populations in a way that belies their socially differentiated and inherently mobile livelihoods. We explored the role of mobility as an ongoing, “everyday” adaptive response to changing environmental, economic, and social conditions. We draw on 21 Life History (LH) interviews to explore the drivers and outcomes of people’s mobility behavior in drylands of Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, and India. We present the adaptation option space (AOS) as a novel theoretical development to explore livelihood trajectories. Within our cases, we found that mobility was ubiquitous and facilitated changes to and exchanges within people’s risk profiles in three main ways: novelty (risks gained or lost), modification (risks attenuated or accentuated), and no change. Temporal analysis showed three broad trajectories in people’s lives set within broader structural constraints: upward, downward, and stable, depending on people’s abilities to manage their AOS. The analysis confirmed that the AOS was a useful heuristic to understand how people exert agency to respond to an array of converging risks while negotiating broader drivers of change. Moreover, the data demonstrated how compounding shocks had negative impacts on people, highlighting the value of temporally-sensitive approaches.

Making Improvisations, Reconfiguring Livelihoods: Surviving the COVID-19 Lockdown by Urban Residents in Uganda

The declaration of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to the enforcement of national lockdowns in several countries. While lockdowns are generally effective in containing the spread of infectious diseases, they are associated with negative impacts on livelihoods. Although evidence suggests that urban informal sector populations in low-resource settings bore the brunt of the adverse economic effects of COVID-19 lockdowns, there is little on how they survived. The article provides insights into the survival mechanisms of urban informal sector populations during a COVID-19 lockdown. Data are from narrative interviews with 30 residents of Kampala City and surrounding areas. We found that the COVID-19 lockdown chiefly jeopardized the livelihoods of urban residents through job loss and reduced incomes. Affected individuals and households primarily survived by making improvisations such as adjusting expenditures and reconfiguring their livelihoods. The cardinal elements of the informal sector, such as limited regulation, served as both a facilitator and constraint to survival. Therefore, the informal sector is an important buffer against livelihood shocks in situations of crisis. However, its inherent limitations imply that promoting livelihood resilience among urban residents during lockdowns and similar shocks may necessitate harnessing both formal and informal safety nets.

Breaking new ground: women’s employment in India’s NREGA, the pandemic lifeline

ABSTRACT India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), in the last 15 years, has evolved as the world’s largest employer of the last resort. This social protection, specifically designed as a demand-driven automatic employment stabiliser to enable households to cope with livelihood shocks, offers 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to all rural households. The budget for this unique legislative entitlement in a developing country was nearly doubled from US$8 billion in 2019–20 to $15 billion in 2020–21 to partially offset the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. After the first pandemic wave, NREGA provided employment to 76 million households – more than a third of all rural Indian families. Even though women have consistently worked more than half the NREGA person-days annually, in the midst of the pandemic women’s share of employment declined by 2 per cent in 2020–21. However, this may have been a temporary decrease due to the unprecedented mass reverse exodus of urban migrants to their rural villages. Still, state-level analysis in this research highlights the persistent under-utilisation of NREGA by women in the poorer states of the Indo-Gangetic plain. On the other hand, the southern states have higher participation of women due to a combination of factors including better human development outcomes, higher wages, and sometimes better child-care facilities at worksites, which are necessary nationwide remedies. In particular, in the state of Kerala the novel integration of the government-initiated Kudumbashree community self-help women’s groups with NREGA has led to the feminisation of the programme. This convergence provides important insights on the significance of women’s participation in the decentralised management of NREGA to dilute both gender-intensive and gender-exclusive barriers, which could be fruitfully replicated nationwide.

From coconut to land: changing livelihoods in Micaúne, Central Mozambique

This paper is about how people in Micaúne currently generate their livelihoods in the aftermath of the coconut economy, which collapsed in the 2000s due to the upsurge of the coconut lethal yellowing disease (CLYD) in the early 1990s. This created uncertainty among residents; however, they did not migrate in masses as documented in the literature on livelihood shocks. On the contrary, Micaúne residents have adopted a different strategy of waiting and observing, since they believe that their future lies in their land because of the potential wealth that could possibly materialise from their subsoil (anticipation). This highlights a major shift of land from a mere host for palm trees into a valuable commodity.

Vulnerability to Livelihood-shocks Among Agrarian Households in Oyo State, Nigeria

The impacts of livelihood shocks on agrarian population especially the natural resource-dependent smallholder farmers in Nigeria cannot be over-emphasized, as this devastating event renders many farmers vulnerable because of limited adaptive capacity. Therefore, this study examined the vulnerability of agrarian households to livelihood shocks using a sample size of 368 farmers selected from Oyo State, Nigeria, through a multistage sampling technique, and from whom relevant data were elicited. This study applied the livelihood vulnerability index approach, and composite score technique to decipher the vulnerability space of the respondents, and for the ordinal categorization of the respondents into different vulnerability categories, respectively. The study also used proportional odds model to investigate the determinants of livelihood vulnerability from the perspective of adaptive capacity vis-à-vis the livelihood capital assets of the farmers. Findings from the study indicated that farmers suffered heavily from crime and economic related shocks due to the farmers-herdsmen conflict, while covariate and idiosyncratic related stressors were also reported by the farmers. Findings also indicated a high level of farmers’ exposure to shocks, with a moderate sensitivity to shocks, and a low adaptive capacity, which apparently pre-dispose the farmers to a serious vulnerable position. The farmers’ adaptive capacity linkage of the livelihood capital assets were also found to contribute significantly to farmers’ vulnerability status in the study area. The study recommended strengthening of physical, human, natural, social, and financial capital assets in building a sustained adaptive capacity of the farming population.

Implications of COVID-19 related non-pharmaceutical measures on household livelihood and food security in Pakistan

PurposeCoronavirus disease 2019 COVID-19 is a health and humanitarian disaster threatening the livelihood and nutritional security of the people globally. This study examined the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic-related non-pharmaceutical measures on households' livelihood and food security in Pakistan.Design/methodology/approachData collected through an online survey from 712 households were analyzed through descriptive statistics, t-test, and binary logit model.FindingsMore than 71% of the total households asserted that COVID-19 had affected their livelihoods negatively. Results revealed that food insecurity among households had increased more than two folds during one year of the COVID-19 compared to the pre-pandemic period. Moreover, the number of households in food insecure and severely food insecure groups had also increased significantly during the pandemic. Increasing monthly income was negatively associated with the COVID-19 induced food security and livelihood shocks implying that households with lower monthly income were likely to suffer more from the COVID-19. Households having agriculture as their main source of livelihood were 35 percentage points less likely to suffer the negative effects of the pandemic compared to wage earners. Wage-earners were 29 percentage points more likely to suffer worsened food security than salaried persons during the COVID-19 period. A large proportion of the households were forced to change their nutritional patterns to negate the adverse consequence of the pandemic on their livelihood and food security.Research limitations/implicationsThe cross-sectional nature of the collected data does not allow developing a causal relationship between COVID-19 implications and the food security of the households.Originality/valueThe pandemic has affected every sphere of life in developing countries but there is no study to assist the policymakers that how to minimize the impacts of the COVID-19 on the food security of households. Therefore, the study will fill this gap in the literature and help policymakers in developing countries to develop strategies to lessen the impact of the pandemic on food security.

The utterly unforeseen livelihood shock: COVID-19 and street vendor coping mechanisms in Hanoi, Chiang Mai and Luang Prabang.

Well before COVID‐19, municipal governments in Vietnam, Thailand and Laos were enacting policies that made street vendor livelihoods increasingly challenging. Yet, vending continues to support tens of thousands of urban households in these three countries. Vendors are often rural‐to‐urban migrants lacking the formal education skills necessary to secure ‘modern’ urban employment, and despite ongoing government disapproval, vending provides a relatively low entry‐cost opportunity for them to support their household's financial needs. Now add to this complex situation the livelihood shocks associated with the COVID‐19 pandemic, as well as additional government restrictions across these three countries to mitigate the pandemic's impacts. Drawing on interviews with 61 street vendors in Hanoi, Chiang Mai and Luang Prabang, and rooted in conceptual discussions regarding urban livelihood shocks, we examine how street vendors, especially rural‐to‐urban migrants, experienced and responded to the ‘first wave’ of COVID‐19, including additional government‐imposed constraints on their livelihoods and mobility. We find that a diverse range of responses helped some—but not all—vendors overcome the initial shocks to their livelihoods and household responsibilities. Yet, we also note that the pandemic's onset altered urban‐rural connections and mobility, with many vendors who turned to formerly dependable rural‐urban ties for support facing unexpected barriers.

Livelihood activities and well-being outcomes of cash transfer beneficiaries in Soweto, South Africa

ABSTRACT Despite a growing body of research on the benefits of cash transfers in reducing poverty, limited knowledge exists of beneficiaries' usage of social assistance to pursue livelihood activities in urban areas. This qualitative narrative enquiry provides empirical evidence that when cash transfers are combined with a wide range of livelihood activities, then material and psychosocial as well as personal, household, and business outcomes are improved. Evidence from Soweto, South Africa, provides policy and programmatic solutions for low- and middle-income countries which can inform post-covid responses to mitigate health and livelihood shocks and the deepening of poverty levels.

A Cultural Framework of Care and Social Protection for Older People in India

Abstract. This article applies a cultural political economy lens within a sustainable livelihood framework and examines how cultural norms and values as well as social protection amplify or attenuate livelihood shocks leading to care-home entry. We used framework analysis and higher-level interpretive analysis of data from interviews with 30 older care-home residents from three districts in Tamil Nadu, India, to understand the practices that allow the social welfare system to function alongside the beliefs and values legitimizing these practices. Results reveal a divergence between the value orientation of social-protection policy and cultural practices which constrains the choices available for care in later life and reinforces culturally constructed inequalities rather than protecting or remediating livelihood shocks and loss of assets.

Siziphile Land Occupations, Wilderness Farming, Threat of the Wild and Livelihood Vulnerability in Western Lupane District

Land self-provisioning has been a strategy not only for land access for the landless, but also to rebuild or improve livelihoods for people recovering from livelihood shocks. An analysis of siziphile land occupation of an abandoned safari ranch by communal area residents in south-western Lupane District, reveals the limitation and livelihood risks of such occupations. It shows how by extending farming activities into a safari ranch (which was home to a variety of wild life), farmers were exposed to a great threat from wild life and to their livelihoods. Yet, these farmers typically lacked the means to protect their crops from wild animals. They had no means to recover from the loss of what they had invested after elephants destroyed their crops. The paper emphasizes the risk taken by households to farm a former safari ranch and how it worked to further impoverish households as opposed to improving their livelihoods situation.

Responses of Rural Households to the Cotton Crisis in Benin

Relying on one source of income puts the livelihood system of rural households at risk. In Benin, cotton has long been the core cash crop of rural livelihood systems—until the mid-2000s, when multiple constraints led to the demise of cotton production. This paper investigates the responses of rural households to the economic shock resulting from the collapse of the cotton sector and the consecutive decrease of income from cotton. The primary data collection was carried out between 2009 and 2012 and included a household survey and focus group discussions with groups of farmers. The results reveal that households diversified their sources of income on farm, with food crops increasingly gaining a cash function. However, because the production system still depended heavily on cotton for access to fertilizers and other inputs for food crops, farmers continued to grow cotton despite its decreasing returns. In addition, because of their multiple extra-domestic activities, women seemed to be less vulnerable than men when coping with livelihood shocks; indeed, their contribution to providing for household needs increased. Further results revealed that young men devised their own ways of dealing with the crisis by temporary migration.

Forced displacements in mining communities: politics in Chiadzwa diamond area, Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT The Chiadzwa diamonds attracted widespread attention due to human rights violations and illegal smuggling. When diamonds were discovered in 2006, thousands of artisanal miners descended on the diamond fields. In response, the government unleashed the army and police in brutal crackdowns to drive artisanal miners off the diamond fields. This militarisation of diamond fields and extraction was followed by forced displacement of the Chiadzwa people. This article examines the lived, everyday experiences of the displaced Chiadzwa people. Findings reveal that displacements dislocated the livelihoods and socialities of the people. Displacements also exacerbated people's vulnerability to livelihood shocks, insecurity, and poverty. In relocating people the government adopted a ‘top-down’ approach which triggered contestations and conflicts with the people who felt alienated from their ancestral land and excluded from diamond wealth. Consequently, sabotage, resistance and subversion were commonplace in the relocation process. These socio-political ‘tactics’ should be viewed as ‘weapons of the weak’.

Understanding the Nature of Rural Change: The Benefits of Migration and the (Re)creation of Precarity for Men and Women in Rural Central Java, Indonesia

AbstractDuring the last two decades, rural-urban migration and government programs have improved livelihood conditions in Javanese villages and brought down levels of poverty considerably. This article, based on two extended surveys in nine villages in Central Java, aims to understand the nature of change in rural Java by focusing on gender and precarity. As a result of migration, old forms of precarity have not completely disappeared: Families without children, elderly and people unable to work continue to live precarious lives. For those who work in the cities, dependence on single-source, low incomes, predominantly earned by men who work in construction, continues to keep families and especially women vulnerable for livelihood shocks and stresses. Increasingly, women from poor families work in low-paid agricultural jobs or keep the family farm running.Migration to the cities makes it possible for many families to stay in the village and live the ‘good’ village life. The village is generally perceived, socially and ideologically, as a ‘better’ place. The flip-side of this preference is a reproduction of traditional family values and limited room to maneuver for women. Very few interesting and suitable jobs for educated women exist in rural areas. Women from poorer families need to work in agriculture. Their dependence on working men with single sources of income, continues the risk to end up or fall back into living precarious lives.

Mobility endowment and entitlements mediate resilience in rural livelihood systems

In economically marginal rural areas, choice in livelihood strategy such as decisions to move location mediates levels of individual and household resilience under conditions of environmental change. It is widely recognised that endowments associated with mobility and the entitlement to mobility are unevenly distributed across populations. This paper integrates these insights and conceptualises location choice as a set of mobility endowments and mobility entitlements. Through focussing on endowments and entitlements, the paper explores how choice affects the ability to be mobile and its role in mediating levels of resilience to livelihood shocks associated with changing environmental conditions. The research design involves measuring the impact of different climatic perturbations in rural locations in Anhui Province, China. Mixed methods of rural appraisal, life history interviews, and a household survey generate objective and perceived elements of individual and household responses to risks. These data are augmented by biophysical observations on the nature of the climatic perturbations. The results show that mobility endowments and mobility entitlements are important in determining the impact of mobility on resilience. The life history interview data highlight significant individual agency within the structures that impact on individual choices. Further, individuals and households who possess the ability to decide and to subsequently enact decisions about mobility, are shown to be more resilient compared to other individuals and households that lack such ability. Moreover, households practicing short-term, circular mobility are more resilient than those households that practice long-term mobility. The study confirms that, in these instances, choice and the ability to enact those choices mediates resilience and highlights the implications of location decisions but also the conditions in which those decisions are made.

Micro-level perception to climate change and adaptation issues: A prelude to mainstreaming climate adaptation into developmental landscape in India

Climate change adds another dimension of challenges to the growth and sustainability of Indian agriculture. The growing exposure to livelihood shocks from climate variability/change and limited resource base of the rural community to adapt has reinforced the need to mainstream climate adaptation planning into developmental landscape. However, a better understanding of micro-level perceptions is imperative for effective and informed planning at the macro-level. In this paper, the grass-root level perspectives on climate change impacts and adaptation decisions were elicited at farm level in the Moga district of Punjab and Mahbubnagar district of Telangana, India. The farmers opined that the climatic variability impacts more than the long-term climate change. They observed change in the quantum, onset and distribution of rainfall, rise in minimum as well as maximum temperature levels, decline in crop yield and ground water depletion. The key socio-economic effects of climate change included decline in farm income, farm unemployment, rural migration and increased indebtedness among farmers. In order to cope with climate variability and change thereon, farmers resorted to adaptation strategies such as use of crop varieties of suitable duration, water conservation techniques, crop insurance and participation in non-farm activities and employment guarantee schemes. Farmers’ adaptation to changing climate was constrained by several technological, socio-economic and institutional barriers. These include limited knowledge on the costs–benefits of adaptation, lack of access to and knowledge of adaptation technologies, lack of financial resources and limited information on weather. Besides, lack of access to input markets, inadequate farm labour and smaller farm size were the other constraints. Further, on the basis of the grass-root elicitation a ‘Need-Based Adaptation’ planning incorporating farmers’ perceptions on climate change impacts, constraints in the adoption of adaptation strategies and plausible adaptation options were linked with the most suitable ongoing programmatic interventions of the Government of India. The study concluded that micro-level needs and constraints for various adaptation strategies and interventions should be an integral part of the programme development, implementation and evaluation in the entire developmental paradigm.