Policy In Rural Areas Research Articles

Neo‐Liberal Transformation of Turkish Agriculture

This paper analyses the relationship between the internationalization of agriculture under the hegemony of transnational corporations and the transformation of Turkish agriculture by specifically looking at the implementation of neo‐liberal policies in rural areas. It contends that neo‐liberalism in Turkish agriculture since the 1980s represents the abandonment of the nationalist project that underlined state policies in industry and agriculture between 1930 and the late 1970s. Neo‐liberal policies implemented since 1980 have consolidated the stronghold of transnational agribusiness companies in Turkish agriculture. In cooperation with the World Bank, the EU and the WTO, the Turkish state has been preparing the necessary conditions for transnational agribusiness firms to control Turkish agriculture. Since 1999, the Turkish state has introduced fundamental institutional changes to ensure the smooth internationalization of Turkish agriculture, which has inevitably led to the impoverishment of the rural masses and to the abandonment of agriculture by small‐ and medium‐sized households.

The Incompatibility of Economic Development Policies for Rural Areas in England

Four different and incommensurate economic development policies currently pertain in rural England: the pursuit of productivity, well-being, endogenous development and income support. This paper describes these policies as they pertained in 2007 in different Government Departments and evaluates salient changes in Departmental positions in respect of these policies since that time to the end of 2009. The impacts of these policies, and their shifts, on rural areas are assessed.

Group-based citizenship in the acceptance of indoor residual spraying (IRS) for malaria control in Mozambique

In 2006, the Mozambican Ministry of Health expanded its existing Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) programme into Manhiça District in the south of the country. Widespread household coverage is required to have a significant impact on malaria transmission, making acceptability fundamental to success. Between 2006 and 2008 we conducted anthropological research in order to understand acceptability of IRS in the context of the implementation process, policy debates, local and regional politics and historical processes. In the first phase of this qualitative study, conducted between January and April 2006, 73 interviews and 12 focus groups were conducted with key stakeholders from 14 locales in and around the town of Manhiça: householders, community leaders, health care professionals, sprayers, and District officials. Analysis revealed IRS to be broadly acceptable despite very low levels of perceived efficacy and duration of effect. In contrast to previous studies which have linked acceptance to a reduction in mosquitoes, nuisance biting and malaria, we found people's compliance with the programme to be founded on a sense of group-based citizenship. The involvement of local governmental leaders in the intervention appears to have led many to accept spraying as part of their civic duty, as decreed by post-war decentralisation policy in rural areas. We discuss the implications of this 'passive' form of compliance for the acceptability and sustainability of malaria control and other public health programmes.

Housing Rural Communities: Connecting Rural Dwellings to Rural Development in Ireland

This paper explores the interaction between rural development policy and planning policies for rural housing within the context of Ireland. Drawing on an interpretive approach to policy analysis, the paper examines competing narratives of ‘the rural’ within the policy arena that underpin a fragmented approach to rural sustainable development. The evidence points to a disconnection between these spheres of public policy marked by a strained relationship between rural communities and regulatory planning, not least with regard to the preferred shape of the rural settlement pattern. It is argued that any housing policy for rural areas must give full regard to the social, economic and cultural attributes of rural life and not just the criteria of environment and landscape. In this context, partnership based local planning processes would enable the exploration of competing rural narratives to be re-orientated towards local needs, capacities and the perspectives of local people and the adoption of cultural, environmental and community values within the policy process.

Examining Diet Quality and Body Mass Index in Rural Areas using a Quantile Regression Framework

Under- and overeating (based on calories) are different problems than being under- and overweight (based on BMI); they thus require different economic prescriptions. To study these differences, I use a quantile regression method that allows an examination of covariate effects at different points in the distribution. The examination focuses on differences in rural and urban areas, and also in characteristics such as education, age, and other economic, demographic and behavior variables. Results suggest that policy in rural areas and the South must emphasize recommendations based on dietary guidelines. I also find that the characteristics typical of rural areas have a large effect regardless of the region.

Estimating the Impact of Migration and Remittances on Agricultural Technology

The rapid growth of international migration and remittances has led to a wealth of research examining these trends. One of these lines of research attempts to determine the relationship between migration, remittances and the adoption of “Green Revolution” high yield variety (HYV) seeds. This literature proposes that migration and remittances may increase HYV use by reducing household risk and credit constraints. Given the large scale of both migration and remittances, getting an accurate measurement of these impacts is crucial to designing and implementing policies in rural areas. This paper examines the relationship between migration, remittances and agricultural technology. The credit and risk hypotheses are tested using data from the Mexican Migration Project. The main focus of the paper is examining the issue of endogeneity with respect to migration and remittances. When the probit approach is tested, evidence of endogeneity bias with respect to migration and remittances is found. The risk and credit hypotheses are then tested with two-stage and three-stage analyses, in order to address the problem of endogeneity. The results are found to be significantly different when methodologies are employed to deal with endogeneity; suggesting this is an issue that needs to be addressed. Overall, the results find some evidence to support both the credit and risk hypotheses; although the results for the risk hypothesis are more mixed.

Small creative industry firms: a development dilemma?

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to examine whether the standard support service intervention model of providing training programmes to stimulate business growth is an effective economic regeneration model in the case of small creative industry firms.Design/methodology/approachA survey of small creative firms was implemented in the south west UK. The aim of the survey was to gain owner/manager views about participation in training.FindingsThe results reveal the majority of firms are interested in a lifestyle based on fulfilling creative aspirations. Very few respondents exhibit any interest in participating in training schemes aimed at enhancing business performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of the research are that it only relates to creative industry firms and was restricted to a single geographic area and only generated data from micro‐enterprises. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to whether regional development agency policies in rural areas should primarily be directed towards supporting industry‐led expansion of existing creative industry small firm clusters.Practical implicationsThe results provide useful guidance in relation to avoiding public sector expenditure on support schemes that are unlikely to stimulate significant economic growth in the small business sector. Additionally a more cost effective approach to stimulating growth in small creative firms outside of metro‐city areas is presentedOriginality/valuePrevious researchers have raised questions about the benefits of offering business training to small firms. This study provides additional knowledge in relation to this issue. More importantly, however, the study offers conclusions about the possible need for support agencies to radically revise their current strategies in relation to stimulating growth and new job creation in the creative industry sector.

Analysis of agriculture-forestry production and settlement promotion policies in rural areas (I) On the possibility of transfer into rural areas.

Analysis of agriculture-forestry production and settlement promotion policies in rural areas (I) On the possibility of transfer into rural areas.

Implementing Smart Growth Strategies in Rural America

Recent studies on obesity rates show alarming increases across the entire population. Some of these studies indicate higher rates of obesity in rural populations than urban and suburban populations. Obesity in children in rural places also outpaces their suburban and urban counterparts. Although a number of factors account for these differences, public health professionals and researchers have begun to recognize that conventional development patterns and land use policies in rural areas are playing an important role in the trend. Smart growth alternatives to current rural development patterns also support broad public health goals. Rural communities across America face a number of challenges, yet many are using smart growth development strategies to turn the challenges into opportunities. These strategies are structured in a way that builds on broadly held values in rural communities, ones that build upon the traditional development pattern and support multiple community goals. Public health professionals, managers, and academics will benefit from this discussion because it will explain the strategies that rural decision makers, planners, and citizens are adopting to create places that support multiple community goals including a built environment that sustains and promotes active living.

Migration and goods market rationing

In this paper we analyze rural-to-urban migration in Less Developed Countries (LDCs). Our main assumption is that such migration can arise from the lack of available modern urban consumer goods in rural areas. Taking this hypothesis as our starting point, we use a dual economy model where the individuals’ target is utility maximization and we show that although the Todaro paradox might hold, Harris and Todaro’s prescription to stop migration is not necessarily adequate. Our analysis thus reveals that an appropriate urban consumer goods supply policy in rural areas could stop migration and solve related urban unemployment problems.JEL classification: R23, D11, C62.

New forest-environmental policies in rural areas included in Natural Network 2000: an application to the Iberian Atlantic Region

This paper presents an analysis of the agro-environmental measures applied in the Atlantic Region of Iberian Peninsula, taking as territorial reference mountainous rural spaces with forestry vocation that proposed to take part of the European Natural Network 2000. In order to do this evaluation, it has been done a Delphi analysis with a panel of experts composed by the presidents of different communities of communal ownership woodlands. The results of this analysis shows the opinion of the managers of the aforementioned natural spaces with relation to the quantity, duration and other aspects of the established aids in the examined agro-environmental programmes. One of the final conclusions are that the managers of these forests are disagree with duration and quantity of the aids. Therefore, their demands are not enclosed in the regional institutional framework. However, quantities demanded by managers for realizing several kind of forestry activities are f itted to European framework. Besides the analysis of the policies developed by the actual Common Agrarian Policy, it is analysed an hypothetical proposal of a new programme of conservation of autochthonous landscapes, what conforms a prevision exercise that, in the future, could be taken into account by the policy makers in the elaboration of the new management programmes of the mountainous rural spaces. In order to get that it is analysed how the quantities of the aids destined to promote this kind of actions are adapted to the social actor demands to whom are destined.

Beyond Red and School: Gender, Tradition and Identity in the Rural Eastern Cape

Rural development policies in South Africa changed in the 1990s. The new framework combined poverty alleviation strategies with an attempt to shift rural communities away from subsistence-oriented agriculture to more market-oriented development options. While many of those who are currently assessing the impact of these policies in rural areas have focused on the extent to which they have contributed towards the creation of 'sustainable livelihoods', relatively little attention has been given to their impact on rural social relations and identity politics. This paper seeks to fill this gap by focusing on transformations in gender relations and identity politics in one rural location in the Eastern Cape. It argues that, although the new initiatives have been unevenly implemented and have not significantly reduced poverty in this area, they have nevertheless activated new discourses around identity and development. The paper traces these changing discourses by comparing and contrasting the polarised identity politics associated with the introduction of agricultural betterment in the 1950s and the increasingly hybrid identities and strategies constructed by rural women, in particular, in response to the new development opportunities. The paper concludes by investigating the implications of these responses for gender and power relations in the village.

Regional policy, cap reform and rural development in Britain: The challenge for new labour

December 1997 saw the Government publish its proposals for the establishment of Regional Development Agencies in England which, inter alia, will incorporate the rural regeneration work of the Rural Development Commission. These institutional changes come at a crucial time for rural policy with reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and European Structural Funds also on the agenda. This paper critically examines the prospects for an invigorated relationship between rural policy and regional development and makes a number of suggestions for further institutional reforms to improve the co-ordination of public policy for rural areas at the regional, national and European levels.

Cultural Identities and Integration in Rural Greece

The paper explores the ways in which cultural policy in rural areas in Greece has attempted to confront the ‘de‐traditionalization’ of rural communities provoked by the integration process of the agricultural economies of the country in a global context. It is argued that the establishment of infrastructures at local level that were expected both to support local cultures and to enable the diffusion of forms and products of contemporary culture, have failed to satisfy the needs of the local communities involved in the process of modernization and to counteract the deprivation experienced by members of the younger generation in matters of leisure and entertainment. Therefore, it seems necessary to proceed with a re‐orientation of cultural policies that will abandon conventional tendencies to folklorize whatever is construed as ‘rural culture’, and will re‐establish the connections between past and present, as well as farm economy and local social and cultural contexts. Moreover, paying attention to ethnographic findings concerning the ongoing construction of collective cultural identity at local level, as well as to local histories and peculiarities, may provide a basis for ‘rethinking’ the aims and methods of cultural policies.

Organic Matter Intake, Diet Digestibility and Feeding Behavior of Goats, Red Deer and South American Camelids Feeding on Three Contrasting Scottish Vegetation Communities

1. With changes in the agricultural policy for rural areas in the UK, there is increased pressure to develop management protocols for indigenous and sown swards based on grazing by ruminant species other than sheep and cattle, e.g. goats, red deer and South American camelids. This can only be achieved through a greater understanding of the feeding behaviour of these species grazing on vegetation communities typical of the hills and uplands. 2. This paper describes the organic matter intake, diet digestibility and activity time of goats, red deer and South American camelids grazing three vegetation types typical of upland ecosystems in Scotland: a sown grassland (Lolium perenne-dominated), an indigenous grassland (Nardus stricta-dominated) and a dwarf-shrub community (Calluna vulgaris-dominated). Intake and digestibility of organic matter (OM) were measured by the n-alkane technique, and activity time was measured using vibracorders. 3. For all species OM digestibility of the diet was higher on the sown sward than on the indigenous communities, and higher on the indigenous grassland than on the dwarf-shrub community. There were no consistent patterns to between-species differences in OM digestibility. 5. When expressed on a metabolic liveweight basis, there was no consistent pattern to the seasonal differences in OM intake (OMI) between species or within species between vegetation types. 6. Irrespective of season, grazing session or vegetation type, activity time of the goats was significantly lower than that of either the red deer or camelids. 7. The conclusions of the study are that these species differ in their foraging strategy, particularly on indigenous communities where heterogeneity in resource dispersion and availability is higher. Goats and camelids maintain diet digestibility at the expense of intake, whereas red deer maintain intake.

The evolution of population policy in rural China

Fertility declined rapidly in China in the 1970s, to slightly above replacement level by 1978. It was in-tended by the government that the One-Child Family Policy, introduced in 1979, would lower fertilitystill further. However, the decollectivization of agriculture, also initiated in the late 1970s, weakenedcollective institutions, thereby undermining birth planning administration and family planning services.The consequent stall in fertility was succeeded in 1987 by a sudden and pronounced decline, to a totalfertility rate of 1.8 in 1992. This paper is an attempt to explain this recent decline in terms of fallingdemand for children, the provision of more accessible family planning services, and the operation ofrestrictive population policy. The major emphasis is on the formulation and implementation of birthcontrol policies in rural areas. Since 1979 central government population policy has become progressivelyliberalized, culminating in the formal abandonment of the One-Child Family Policy in 1991. Local policy-makers, however, have been intimately exposed to the reproductive demands of the peasantry. Asa result a uniform national policy co-exists with highly diverse policies at the local level, dependenton social and economic conditions. The declining authority of township (commune) birth planning ad-ministrations was arrested in the late 1980s with the massive injection of funds from all levels of govern-ment. This reversal was aided by the recruitment of over 50 million volunteers by the CommunistParty-led Family Planning Association, to reinforce the work of birth planning cadres and family plan-ning personnel. Above all, it is argued that the effective implementation of local birth plans has reliedon an intensification of cooperation between birth planning officials and other local government cadreswho regulate access to resources, such as land and credit, without which the aspirations of ordinarypeople cannot be realised.

中山間地域における農林業生産と定住促進政策に関する意向調査の分析(II)直接的所得補償政策に関して

中山間地域における農林業生産と定住促進政策に関する意向調査の分析(II)直接的所得補償政策に関して

Turmoil in the welfare system reshapes rural Sweden

The purpose of the article is to discuss rural change and the effects of policies on the spatial distribution of welfare in Sweden. It is argued that the Swedish welfare model has had a major redistributional effect in favour of peripheral regions. The outcome is largely unintentional as the welfare system is directed to individuals rather than to regions. When recession and political change put pressure on the welfare model, a corresponding unintentional negative effect will hit the periphery. Therefore, a spatial perspective on the changing state budget is needed in order to develop a new policy for rural areas. Finally, attention is drawn to the complex pattern of rural change in Sweden. A cluster of changes are operating at different levels, giving new prospects to some regions while others will have continuing and increasing problems.

Barriers to Solutions: Service Delivery and Public Policy in Rural Areas

Improvements in individual and community resources are complicated by inadequate rural public policy and increasing difficulties in the delivery of services, including health care. This article examines rural service delivery, particularly the delivery of health care, and public policy issues in the context of persistent rural poverty. Barriers, including those at both individual and community levels, are discussed as well as artificial barriers that professionals may impose as they work to improve the life status of older rural adults. Initiatives currently underway for the improvement of rural service delivery and issues regarding the development and implementation ofpublic policy responsive to rural areas also are discussed. Recommendations forfuture service delivery in and public policy for rural areas are noted. Central to this discussion is the recognition that any attempt to improve the quality of life for older adults m rural areas, particularly when applied to the reduction of current financial distress, will be developed and implemented during times of increased program and employee accountability at all levels.

A Demographic Decomposition of the Recent Increase in Crude Birth Rates in China

The triple standardization method was used to estimate the separate effect of changes in age structure marriage pattern and marital fertility on the crude birth rate in China. The decomposition method is described. Data were from the 1982 Census the 1987 1% Population Survey and the 1988 2/1000 Fertility and Contraceptive Survey. Single-year age data for 1981 and 1987 were estimated nationally and for each province based on the 1982 population census and life tables. Single-year ages of both sexes in 1984 were estimated from 1987 survey data and life tables. Age-specific fertility rates are given from the 1988 2/1000 Survey. The 1984 birth rate was computed separately and comparability with 1987 data was obtained by the same calculation. Discussed are 3 components of recent fertility change data methods and data sources 1981 and 1987 compared and 1987 and 1984 compared. It is concluded that changes in age structure and declining age at marriage are primarily responsible for the increase in the crude birth rate for the country as a whole and for most provinces. The increase in marital fertility is much less important. Chinas population growth is not considered in light of this study to the out of control again or to be a reversal of trends in marital fertility. Large birth cohorts in the 1960s entered their childbearing years in the 1980s. The New Marriage Law legalized a minimum age at marriage of 20 years instead of 23 years and this accounts for the declining age at marriage rather than a weakening of the family planning program in China. The civil registration of marriage data between 1984-87 had an impact of 5% on the crude birth rate in 1984 compared with an impact of 13.2% from age structure and 7.6% from marriage pattern. The small increase in marital fertility is explained by the relaxation of fertility control policies in rural areas to allow for a 2nd child with appropriate spacing. Compliance with the birth spacing policy was better in 1987 than in 1984 when the policy was introduced. Administrative decentralization has also loosened policy control. It is projected from the recent 1990 census that the number of women in the childbearing ages will be 322 million for each year between 1991-95 (an 8.1% increase over 1986-90 and a 16.2% increase in the peak childbearing years of 20-29). Promoting late marriage and late childbearing will help to curb population growth.