Rural Household Level Research Articles

Development of a Constructed Wetland for Greywater Treatment for Reuse in Arid Regions: Case Study in Rural Burkina Faso

This study implemented and assessed, over a period of four weeks, a full-scale constructed wetland designed to collect and treat the greywater for a rural household located in an arid environment typical of Africa’s Sahel region. The system was constructed from local materials and consisted of a shower room, a receiving basin, a pre-treatment filter, and a subsurface horizontal flow wetland planted with Chrysopogon zizanioides. Results showed the overall removal of organic matter was greater than 90%, and orthophosphate and ammonium were reduced by 73% and 60%, respectively, allowing for the treated water to retain some embedded nutrients. The removal efficiency of fecal bacteria varied from 3.41 (enterococci) to 4.19 (fecal coliforms) log10 units which meets World Health Organization Guidelines for restricted irrigation. Our assessment of the full-scale household constructed wetland technology adds to the relatively low number of constructed wetland studies conducted outside a laboratory setting. Furthermore, it supports efforts to promote safe reuse of an underutilized resource at the rural household level in Sub-Saharan Africa and other arid regions in the developing world, supporting prospects for using treated greywater for agricultural reuse in regions that experience water scarcity, climate variability, and land degradation.

Occupational dimension of food security: A rural household level assessment in Kogi State, Nigeria

This study empirically assessed the occupational dimension of food security among rural households in Kogi State, Nigeria. The study adopted a multi-stage random sampling technique to select one hundred and forty-four (144) rural households for data collection. Primary data obtained from the respondents were analyzed using descriptive statistics, food security index (FSI), and a binary logit regression model. The results revealed a mean age of 43 years among the rural household heads. Married households accounted for 79.29% of the sample size with a mean household size of 4 members. The level of illiteracy was relatively low. The mean monthly income among the households was N71,796.43 (($154.40)). The majority (91.30%) of the farmers were food secure while only 8.70% were food insecure. The incidence of food insecurity was higher (77.8%) among the artisans, followed by household heads in other occupations, traders, and civil servants with an incidence rate of 58.3%, 54.8%, and 51.5%, respectively. It was also found that sex (p<0.01) and farming as a major occupation of household head (p<0.01) had a positive impact on rural household food security, while age (p<0.01) had a negative impact on household food security. It was recommended that relevant stakeholders should encourage rural households to practice agricultural production and farmers should be supported by the government and other relevant actors to expand their scale of production as this will have a multiplier effect on rural households’ food security.

Determinants of rural household livelihood dependence on non-timber forest products: A case study from Inanda Community, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Natural forest resources are the most accessible sources of services, products and incomes for many adjacent rural communities. However, the declining resilience of forests and agricultural sectors particularly in South Africa is concerning and a real public policy challenge. Little is known about the determinants of rural community dependence on natural forests, and the importance of this dependence to rural livelihoods and environmental outcomes. This study investigated factors affecting rural household level of forest dependence and the contribution of natural forests to rural household livelihoods in the “KwaZulu-Natal Sandstone Sourveld (KZNSS)” ecosystem. Employing survey data from 150 forest-dependent households and a logit-transformed Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model, the study found that there is significant level of forest dependence in the study area. The empirical findings showed that the contribution of forest resources to rural livelihoods is significantly influenced by off-farm incomes, employment incomes, forest vouchers received from the “Wildlands Project” in exchange for planting trees, values of household assets, changing of time and dates in visiting the forest for the collection of forest products, and perceived changes in temperature. These findings imply that institutional arrangements for programs like the “Wildlands Project” need to be developed from the beginning with the participation of all pertinent stakeholders for everyone to accept it and understand the regulations. Additionally, legislative changes are needed to help rural residents sustainably support their livelihoods and diversify their sources of income to build resilience and ease pressure on natural forests.

Socioeconomic determinants of rural households’ food security status in Northern Ghana

National aggregate data to analyze food security status at the national level has often been used in many countries including Ghana to determine food security status. This has been a reason that many interventions that have had minimum or no impact on households’ food security status due to variation within region in the design of such interventions. This study used household level-data data from 2260 rural households to determine rural household food insecurity status, and also identify and analyze the socioeconomic factors that significantly influence rural household level food insecurity. The study used the Food Consumption Score (FCS) as the index for household food security status. An ordinal logit model was used to predict household food security status with respect to twelve explanatory variables. The results showed that 70% of the sampled rural households were food insecure, and in particular, food insecurity was found to be more pronounced among female-headed households. The results further showed that improved education, increased household income, improved access to agricultural credit and large farm size increase the probability of households to attain high food security status. On the other hand, high food prices and large household size were found to reduce the probability of households to attain high food security status. For policy implication, these micro-level factors need to be considered in the implementation of food insecurity interventions programs in order to achieve desired outcomes.

Cassava flour production by small scale processors, its quality and economic feasibility

Cassava flour is promising to be used as a food ingredient substitute for wheat and rice flour-based food products. It can be also processed at a rural household level to ensure the income of farmers. This study was aimed at identifying the physical and chemical characteristics of cassava roots and the flour produced as well as the economic feasibility of its production at a small scale. The results showed that cassava flour prepared from Sembung, an Indonesian local variety had fairly good quality parameters according to the national quality standards for moisture, starch, and hydrogen cyanide (HCN) contents, while the physical characteristics were sub-optimal. The yield recovery of cassava flour processing was 20.16% or equivalent to 9.67 ton per year assuming the annual production capacity was 48.00 tons of fresh cassava. A home-scale industry of cassava flour can give a net profit of IDR 49,565,888 or about 3,440 USD per year with the revenue cost ratio of 1.52, net profit margin of 34.15%, return of investment of 51.81% and payback period of 1.02 year. Adjusting the harvest time with crop maturity as well as following proper processing methods would improve the flour yield recovery, quality and economic returns.

Determinants of Crop Diversification in Bangladesh: An Econometric Analysis

This study aims to investigate the factors that influence household behaviour in cultivating the diversified crops on their cultivable land in Bangladesh. Cragg’s alternative tobit model has been applied to a unique rural household level dataset to find the catalysts of crop diversification. The results obtained portrayed a mixed impression of crop diversification in the country. The estimated results have revealed that the male head of household, the accessibility of information, a greater number of farming parcels and the availability of hired labour seem to govern the decision of a farming household to participate in non-rice crop production, while factors such as the total amount of land, agricultural extension service and irrigation facilities influence rice cultivation. Moreover, the findings obtained from the same Cragg’s alternative tobit model estimation for the Aman, Boro and Aus seasons have also revealed a similar depiction of crop diversification in Bangladesh.

Determinants of adaptation to climate variability among farming households in Tyhume Valley communities, Eastern Cape province, South Africa

PurposeThis paper aims to determine factors affecting adaptation to climate variability on crop production among farming households in Tyhume Valley.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted an empirical analysis of the impact of adaptation on crop yield of farming households and estimated the factors affecting adaptation to climate variability on farming households. The analysis used primary data from 205 farming households practicing crop production in Tyhume Valley communities.FindingsBased on binary logit results, factors affecting rural farming households’ adaptation to climate variability are gender, age, heatwave, employment status, strong high wind occasional experience and cell phone. The adaptation measures adopted by the farming households in the study area include irrigation (94.8%), crop rotation (66%), changing crop variety (7.4%) and other methods of adaptation were found to be (1.3%). The other methods of adaptation used included the use of ash to kill (intuku) mole and using dirty water from washing dishes and clothes when irrigating to kill parasites on crops.Originality/valueThis research paper will be an addition to the body of knowledge on adaptation strategies to climate variability in South Africa, especially at the rural farming household level. This study may assist the rural communities in decision-making when dealing with the challenges of climate variability on their crop production, thereby increasing their crop production. The information gathered in this study might assist policymakers in revising the existing policies. This study will also help rural farming households to practice appropriate adaptation strategies.

Moving out of agriculture in Bangladesh: The role of farm, non-farm and mixed households

• The share of mixed households (with farm and non-farm jobs) in rural Bangladesh rose from 23 to 39% between 2000 and 2013. • The share of mixed households of the youngest cohort (those with heads age 15–30 years in 2000) increased from 17% to 30%. • In areas near cities, the share of pure farm households fell; the share of mixed households rose from 15 to 34%. This paper explores patterns of exit from agriculture in rural Bangladesh by utilizing nationally representative repeat cross-section and pseudo-panel survey data. Our analysis focuses at the rural household level where we focus on three types of households: (a) “pure” agriculture households in which all workers are employed only in agriculture; (b) “mixed” households in which some members remain in the farm sector and others pursue nonfarm activities, and (c) rural “nonfarm” households who are exclusively dependent on non-agricultural employment. We find that non-farm orientation has increased over the 2000 to 2013 period, and that nonfarm households rely more on salaried employment and less on unpaid work. Pseudo-panel data based on age-cohort of household heads from the Labor Force Survey (LFS) of 2000 and 2013 also shows a notable increase in mixed households formed by diversification of activities of formerly farm-only households. Employment patterns of younger households are changing especially rapidly: the share of mixed households among households with heads age 15–30 years increased from 17% to 30% in this period. Proximity to urban areas also is associated with a rapid shift in household employment patterns over time. In areas less than 2.5 kms from cities, the share of pure farm households fell from 46.5 to 30.3 percent of households, while the share of mixed households rose from 14.8 to 33.7 percent. Overall, our findings confirm a process of transformation involving a shift from predominantly agriculture employment to increased non-farm employment. We find that the structural transformation considered does not necessarily involve large-scale permanent migration to cities. Rather, much of the shift out of agriculture occurs within rural areas with especially rapid change happening in areas of close proximity to cities.

Analysis of vegetable oil demand and its price reform in Iran: using rural and urban household level data

In a group of food types, vegetable oils are the second-largest source of energy in the human diet and their consumption is very important from a health and economic viewpoint. Consumer behavior evaluation can help a lot in adopting the right policies; so, the framework of the Almost Ideal Demand System model for food expenditures was used to examine rural and urban vegetable oil consumer behavior in Iran using household survey data conducted by the Iranian Statistical Institute for the 2018 year. For this purpose, income, price and cross-price elasticities under ten aggregated food groups i.e., Cereal, Meat, Dairy, Butter and Animal Oil, Vegetable Oil, Fruits and Nuts, Vegetables and Legumes, Sugary, Spices and, Dinks were estimated for vegetable oil using the Seemingly Unrelated Regression. The obtained results showed that vegetable oil concerning the positive income elasticities is a necessity goods both rural (0.872) and urban (0.889) consumers. Own-price elasticities revealed that the demand for vegetable oil is less responsive to the increase in the price in urban areas (-0.280) than the rural area (-1.073). Moreover, Butter and Animal Oils food groups are highly substitutable with vegetable oil for rural consumers. Since the absolute value of cross-price elasticities are often less than an entity, consumers of vegetable oil will not have a noticeable change in demand as prices change for other food groups. Due to vegetable oil price reform, per capita compensation payments for a typical rural person would be greater than the urban person. The results suggest that policymakers should adopt different policies about rural and urban consumers of vegetable oil.

Exploring Vulnerability–Resilience–Livelihood Nexus in the Face of Climate Change: A Multi-Criteria Analysis for Mongla, Bangladesh

This article illustrates the critical findings of an empirical investigation of resilience, vulnerability, and livelihood nexus in one of the worst cyclone-affected sub-districts “Mongla” in Bangladesh. Results obtained from the survey conducted in 2018 and 2019 explore the co-existence of climate change vulnerability and resilience at the rural household level. Additionally, the study identifies the role of assets (e.g., land, cash, and livestock) in order to enhance the resilience of poor inhabitants. Quantitative data have been collected using structured and semi-structured interviews. The outcome of the study demonstrates that the relationships between vulnerability and resilience are very complex and exist in the study area. An exciting outcome has revealed that in some places, more vulnerable people exhibit higher resilience capacity and vice versa. Furthermore, this research emphasizes that local livelihood systems may be improved if appropriate policies are considered by local government organizations in collaboration with multiple stakeholders. Consequently, the local citizens have to play their critical role to assist government policies in order to enhance resilience at the community level. Moreover, local residents can have a better understanding of their livelihood issues in the face of climate change.

MIGRATION DECISIONS AMONG RURAL HOUSEHOLDS IN RWANDA: WHAT DOES THE PUSH-AND-PULL MODEL REVEAL?

A country economic status is strongly linked to the transition of its population from one area to another. This, because labor and other forms of migration, has a twofold advantage: (I) resourcing the targeted location by skilled labor force, and (II) improving migrant households’ livelihoods by lowering the vulnerability level. This research aimed at understanding the factors affecting migration decisions among rural households in Rwanda. Data on internal migration were collected in 5033 rural households in 2016/2017 as a part of the fifth nation-wide crosssectional survey on the Households Living Conditions, and analyzed using the binary logistic regression model. The major findings showed that internal migration was higher in Southern (31.9%) and Western (24.3%) provinces, where official reports pointed out a high level of poverty. The lower rate was observed in Kigali City (3.5%) which was actually considered as richest area and the most internal migration ‘pull factors’ (jobs and other livelihoods opportunities) offering zone. Results also revealed that, on one hand, being from a rural area, the age, having a large household size, having advanced education level, and being an female household head were the ‘push factors’ increasing by around 30% and more the probability of deciding to migrate to another region. On the other hand, owning a land and being reach decreased the likelihood of moving to other zones. This leads to affirm that employment opportunity and availability of diversified livelihoods sources in receiving regions constitute the main ‘pull factors’ of migration decisions at rural household level. In light of these findings, it is recommended to (I) ensure more balanced regional growth and opportunities for increased access to off-farm employment for a larger proportion of the rural population and (II) carry out a study on the effects of migration on the livelihoods of migrant-sending households in order to make a thorough and refined situational analysis.

Integrating Indigenous Agricultural Knowledge into Modern Agricultural Practices for Sustainable Rural Household Food Security in Uganda

Food security is a major concern of the global development Agenda as reflected in Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs). Globally 2 billion people are food insecure and the situation is on a rise especially in developing countries. The Modern Agricultural Practices (MAP) being promoted have not solved the situation. The Indigenous Agricultural Knowledge (IAK) that has sustained food production, access and utilization in developing countries is not recognized in food security strategies. Uganda’s food security situation is alarming; nearly half of Uganda’s 7.3 million households are food insecure. More than 90% of the food produced in Uganda is by peasant farmers and depend on IAK, but there are no formal interventions that seek to encourage people to use it. This study was carried out in Isingiro District, South Western Uganda in the 3 Sub Counties of Masha, Kabingo and Kabuyanda that were purposively selected. Food security is a major challenge facing district and more than 95% of the people struggle to produce food through IAK. The implementation of Millennium Village Project in the district did not change the situation. The study employed a case study research methodology, but priority given to qualitative methods. 102 respondents were interviewed that included; farmers, local leaders and key informants. Three Focus Group Discussions were heldin each sub-county where data collected from. The findings indicated that the district was experiencing both chronic and acute food insecurity. The main causes of food insecurity included poverty, extended dry seasons, lack of granaries and lack of government enforcement. The IAK practices used towards food security included terrain and soil selection, intercropping, weather forecasting, seed selection, sun drying, use of local pesticides and control of banana bacterial wilt. The MAP used included; spraying, planting of hybrid seeds, use of fertilizers, and preservation of beans grains using lindane dust.IAK was contributing greatly towards the four pillars of food security of availability, access, utilization and stability in the district. The study recommends that it should promoted and one way of doing it is integrating it into MAP since it is what the majority use.Regarding integration of IAK and MAP, the study revealed that there was a conscious integration of both and came up with a six step frame work that can be applied to integrate IAK into MAP to ensure sustainable food security at rural house hold level in Uganda.

SAVINGS AND INCOME RELATIONSHIPS AMONG HOUSEHOLDS: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

The paper is a survey of available literature on savings-income functions in developing countries. It gives critical examination of some of the major theories underlying savings and income functions. In doing this, the paper highlighted the concept of savings and some empirical studies done in the area of savings-income relationships and their findings as well as economic implications of the findings. The import of the paper stems from the fact that domestic savings of which household savings is an important component has contributed immensely to the economic transformation of some economies and the determinants of such savings well researched. Hence, understanding the theoretical underpinnings of the savings-income relationships would pave way for further studies to be conducted in Ghana, thereby, replicating such success stories. This is because a better understanding of the savings-income relationship will contribute to the formulation of appropriate policies for savings mobilisation, thereby improving upon local capital formation capacity. Moreover, a good knowledge gained of the savings-income phenomenon particularly at the rural household level in Ghana will give the monetary authorities a fair idea of how the rural economy operates and how to make improvements in this sector to enable its integration into the mainstream financial system.

Rural households' renewable energy usage intention in Iran: Extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology

Abstract This research work tests a model about the intention of using renewable energy sources at the rural household level in Iran. The model focuses on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), which we expand to investigate the factors influencing the intention of using renewable energy sources. By drawing on the responses of 280 household heads in the rural areas of Zabol county (located in the south of Iran) and employing a multivariate technique of structural equation modeling, we identified four variables—perceived behavioural control, awareness, relative advantage, and moral norms—which had statistically significant positive relationships with the variable of intention and explained about 46% of its variances. However, there was no significant relationship between intention and social norms. In addition, the attitude variable mediated the relationship of intention with three variables—awareness, relative advantage, and moral norms. After the inclusion of the variable of attitude as mediating variable in the model, the predictive power of the model was found to increase up to 19%. The findings not only provide evidence for the five mediated paths in the cognitive processing of intention of using renewable energy but also provide support to investment decisions for developing renewable energy in the rural areas of Iran and other developing countries.

Reinterpreting energy poverty in Zimbabwe: a scalar perspective

Unequal access to electricity has negatively impacted rural households in Zimbabwe. Energy poverty and its impact cannot be understood only at rural household level, but involve the local community, the government, the nature of the state and international relations. The state, non-state and political actors operate across scales and have relational interactions that help to explain inequality in access to energy. Through a qualitative study of Buhera District, Ward 24 and its scalar political ecology, I explain inequalities of access through actor roles and differential power, also finding that patriarchal gender relations play a critical role in socially producing scale in the household. Scalar relations determine policy decisions that are felt by households denied access to electricity.

An Analysis on Crops Choice and Its Driving Factors in Agricultural Heritage Systems—A Case of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces System

The Honghe Hani Rice Terraces System (HHRTS) is one of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) sites approved by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2010. In recent years, with the development of modern agriculture and tourism, cultivation practices for high yield and uniform variety cropping, has threatened the stability of the system of forest-village-paddy-rivers in the Hani terraces. From the viewpoint of farming behavior, we carried out our surveys to learn about the local rural households’ planting situations and the factors that influence their planting choices. A Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was used for gaining information in Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province. Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) were used to test the theoretical result at the individual rural household level. Then, this paper summarized the status quo of crop cultivation structures and analyzed their driving factors in HHRTS. The results showed as follows: ① In the 41.23 hm2 available farmland referred in survey, the crops grown, ordered by total cultivated area, are hybrid rice, corn, and fruit, which rank as the top three for all crops. As the regional traditional crop, the cultivated area of red rice is only 12.04% of total available farmland referred to in the survey. ② According to the actual plantation, the rural household is divided into two categories and marked as “the red-rice-plantation-oriented household (RR household)” and “the hybrid-rice-plantation-oriented household (HR household)”. The result of the SUR model showed that the driving factors to plant hybrid rice and red rice varied greatly with different categories of the rural household. ③ Consistent with the results of correlation analyses and factor analyses, significant driving factors of red rice planting included the ethnicity of the household, the average altitude of the farmland, and the labor productivity of red rice. Significant restraint factors included the total number of family members and the yield of red rice per unit area. Thereupon, in order to realize the dynamic protection of HHRTS, we established an encouragement mechanism for improving the proportion of red rice plantings in relation to aspects of the rural household, the community, and the local government.

Evaluation of development prospects of renewable energy: agent based modelling

The paper describes the agent-based model usage to evaluate the dynamics and the perspectives of alternative energy adopting in the Eastern regions of Russia. It includes a brief review of the agent-based models that can be used for estimation of alternatives in the process of transition to “green” economics. The authors show that active usage of solar energy in Russia is possible at the rural household level, when the climate conditions are appropriate. Adoption of solar energy sources decreases the energy production based on the conventional sources and improves the quality of environment in the regions. A complex regional multi-agent model is considered in this paper. The model consists of several private models and uses GIS technologies. These private models are a demographic and migration model of the region and a diffusion of the innovations model. In these models, agents are humans who live within the boundaries of the agents-municipalities, and agents as well are large-scale producers of electricity that pollutes the environment. Such a structure allows us to determine the changes in the demand for electricity generated by traditional sources. A simulation software will assist to identify the opportunities for implementation of alternative energy sources in the Eastern regions of Russia.

Geographical Mobility, Income, Life Satisfaction and Family Size Preferences: An Empirical Study on Rural Households in Shaanxi and Henan Provinces in China

Employing data from the China rural–urban mobility survey conducted in 2010, this study investigates the influence of family demographic characteristics on the income, life satisfaction, and potential for rural–urban mobility at the rural household level of two provinces of China: Shaanxi and Henan. A larger labor force in a rural household was found to reduce a family’s ability or inclination to move to a city. The findings reveal that family size negatively affects the average income per family member and reduces the marginal income of the labor force and that minor children can improve the life satisfaction of family members. We conclude that a larger family size does not translate to more benefits for a rural household. Family size preference is found to be a reflection of parents’ concerns about elderly care and is deemed to be unfavorable for urbanization in P. R. China.

Differentiation of rural households’ consciousness in land use activities: A case from Bailin Village, Shapingba District of Chongqing Municipality, China

What rural households think and what kind of strategies they take, the basic driving force in land use activities, contribute greatly to the increase of their own revenues, the development of agricultural yields, and even the prosperity of rural areas. Differentiation in rural household behaviors and their consciousness in land use activities is widespread in rural China nowadays. It is important to understand the changing characteristics and laws of land use behaviors of rural households driven by their consciousness, so as to regulate their land use activities. In most empirical studies of land use change at rural household level, the land use consciousness, which acts directly on land use behaviors, is often neglected. In our research, the changes of land use behaviors of rural households are analyzed, through identifying how the land use consciousness affect the land use objectives, land management scales and land inputs of all the rural households in Bailin Village of Chongqing Municipality in the western mountainous China. Also, how the land use consciousness of different rural households comes into being under external stimuli is examined and the self-adjustment process of their consciousness according to their own conditions is also discussed. Finally, broad policy instruments are suggested to promote the rationalization of rural households’ land use consciousness and the standardization of their land use behaviors.

Production performance of local and exotic breeds of chicken at rural household level in Nole Kabba Woreda, Western Wollega, Ethiopia

Production performance of rural chickens was studied in three agro-ecologies of Nole Kabba Woreda of west Wollega zone, about 32, 29 and 31 from mid-highland, highland and lowland agro-ecological zones, respectively and a total of 92 households and 18 key informants were used for the survey work. Finally, all the data collected were subjected to Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 17.0 and SAS (2002). The results obtained revealed that, statistically significant difference between the agro-ecologies in sexual maturity of indigenous chickens as measured by age at first mate (P < 0.05). There was significant difference between local and exotic chickens in rate of egg production (P < 0.05). Mean age at first egg of about 7.02 ± 0.220 and 5.66 ± 0.116 months was calculated for indigenous and exotic pullets, respectively. Overall percent hatchability of 82 and 44.36% was reported from eggs of indigenous and exotic chicken, respectively. In summary the results of this study tends to indicate that improvement in exotic chicken eggs hatchability under scavenging condition seems to be the future direction of research in the Nole Kabba Woreda. Key words: Chicken, indigenous, exotic, household, agro-ecology.