Incidence Of Rural Poverty Research Articles

The responsiveness of rural poverty to structural and rural transformations in Ethiopia

AbstractThis study investigates the effects of economic opportunities created by structural transformation, such as income from labor employment and income from nonlabor sources, on the incidence, depth, and severity of rural poverty using the 2018/2019 Ethiopian Socioeconomic Survey data. The effects of rural transformations in terms of nonfarm self‐employment and improved farming systems on poverty are also investigated. Ordinary least square, Probit, Instrumental Variable Probit model, and two stage least square estimation methods are used depending on the nature of outcome variables and the Wald test of exogeneity. The findings show that labor income (especially regular salaried income) and nonlabor income (especially remittance from international sources) are crucial in reducing the incidence of rural poverty. Improvements in crop and livestock practices, on the other hand, reduce the incidence as well as depth and severity of rural poverty. The findings suggest that more attention should be given to enhancing the modernization of crop and livestock sectors by expanding access to farm credit and improved extension systems, among other things.

The Performance Evaluation Model of Financial Special Rural Revitalization Funds from the Perspective of the Digital Economy

Digital village is the strategic direction of rural revitalization, and also an important part of building a digital China. At present, the construction of digital countryside is advancing, and a reasonable evaluation of the results of rural revitalization can effectively evaluate the use of funds. Therefore, in this study, firstly, based on the economic, social, and ecological perspectives, the fund performance evaluation index system of rural revitalization is constructed. Secondly, the correlation analysis method is used to select the evaluation index, and the combined weight method is employed to obtain the weight of the evaluation index. Finally, according to the extension cloud theory, the performance evaluation model of targeted poverty alleviation is implemented, and an empirical study is conducted on the performance evaluation of S Province with excellent rural revitalization. The results reveal that the income growth rate of the poor population, the incidence of rural poverty, and the rate of good air quality are the most vital indicators, with weights of 0.094, 0.092, and 0.07 respectively. From 2015 to 2021, S Province maintained a high level of environmental performance, while its economic performance and social performance needed to be further improved. The fund performance of rural revitalization experienced four levels: average, medium, good, and excellent, and showed a reverse trend in 2018 and 2021. This study makes a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of rural revitalization by using the extension cloud theory, which provides a reference for the effective use of special funds, and also provides a sufficient scientific basis for the macroeconomic layout.

Rural transformation, income growth, and poverty reduction by region in China in the past four decades

China has experienced rapid rural transformation in the past four decades. Accompanying the rapid transformation is a significant rise in rural household income and a substantial fall in rural poverty. This paper examines the evolutions of and the relationships between rural transformation (high-value agriculture and rural non-farm employment) and its outcomes (per capita rural income and rural poverty incidence) using provincial-level data. The results show that 31 provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities have undergone significant rural transformation, but the level and speed of rural transformation differed considerably. Moreover, an increased level of rural transformation is often associated with higher per capita rural income and reduced rural poverty incidence. Notably, a category of provincial rural transformation based on high-value agriculture and rural non-farm employment is also analyzed. We further discuss the likely impacts of institutions, policies, and investments (IPIs) on rural transformation and conclude with policy implications.

Poverty – A Direct Threat to Global Environmental Degradation

The paper highlights that poverty has been a source of a severe threat to global environment. The earth is one but the world is not. For sustainable livelihood of human being, man is destroying the nature, without replacing it any more. Further, high mass of consumption had added fuel to fire. Certainly, majority of the populations in developing economies living within them, depend directly on natural resources. For many of these economies, primary product exports account for the vast majority of their export earnings, and one or two primary commodities make up the bulk of exports. Agricultural value added accounts for an average of 40 per cent GDP, and nearly 80 per cent of the labor force is engaged in agricultural or resources-based activities.For a sample of 76 developing economies from Africa, Asia and Latin America, the incidence of rural poverty rises as developing countries have more of their populations concentrated on fragile lands. Although the average poverty rate across all economies is 45.8 per cent, the rate falls 36.8 per cent for those countries with less than 20 per cent of their population in fragile environments. Much of developing economies are depending on natural resources. The incidence of poverty rises in these economies has been formed with population, whose livelihoods are concentrated on fragile lands. Generally, poor people are forced to overuse environmental resources. In India also all major rivers turned into polluted, one-third forest degraded into one-sixth. Too much logging, turned into loss of flora and fauna. Global countries realised that natural resources are limited, so that we have revive it by reducing population size, rejuvenation of land, reducing pollutions and support for regeneration of natural resources. Protection and promotion of environment is found as a need of the hour. Sustainable development is not as easy as we said. Renewal, recycle, reuse, reduce of resources are to be used regularly for ever green globe. Natural resources accounting, budgeting, management are to be made popular. So that poor can be elevated. Encouragement of political party on environment is badly needed.

The Impact of Global Cotton and Wheat Prices on Rural Poverty in Pakistan

The incidence of rural poverty in Pakistan increased during the late 1990s after having declined during the 1980s and early 1990s. A number of structural factors have been identified as contributing to rural poverty in Pakistan. Among them are low levels of health and education spending and the unequal of farmland distribution. These structural factors help explain the levels of poverty in Pakistan, but not the increase in poverty in the late 1990s. One hypothesis is that the increase in rural poverty is the result of an adverse trend in world commodity prices, particularly cotton, a major commercial crop, and other agricultural commodities such as wheat, rice, and sugar. The overall objective of this paper is to measure the impact of changes in world commodity prices on poverty in rural Pakistan, with particular focus on cotton prices and the main cotton producing districts of Punjab and Sindh provinces.

Poverty, Feudalism, and Land Reform— The Continued Relevance of Iqbal

After half a century of development experience, one-third of the population of Pakistan today is condemned to struggle below the poverty line, howsoever defined. In absolute terms, this size of the population of the poor is larger than the total population of [West] Pakistan at the time of independence in 1947. The incidence of rural poverty is greater than in urban areas. Iqbal died nine years before the state of Pakistan was established in 1947 and 2 years before the adoption of the Lahore Resolution in 1940. Territorially, the present-day Pakistan is closer to Iqbal’s idea of the Muslim State presented in his famous presidential address at the annual session of the Muslim League held at Allahabad in 1930: “I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sindh and Balochistan amalgamated into a single State” [Brelvi (1977), p. 63]. The same, however, would be hard to say in regard to his vision of economy and society. Poverty as a problem, feudalism as the cause and land reform as a solution formed the most important part of this vision.

The Impact of High-Standard Farmland Construction Policy on Rural Poverty in China

As the core component of agricultural development projects, high-standard farmland construction is a reliable measure of agricultural production, and can be used to improve the economy in rural areas. Based on provincial panel data, this paper adopts the continuous difference-in-differences (DID) method to analyze the impact of China’s high-standard basic farmland construction policy on the incidence of rural poverty and its mechanisms. The results show that this policy can significantly reduce the incidence of rural poverty by 7.4%, and if, after using robust standard error and bootstrap sampling 1000 times for a robustness test, the regression results are still robust, this also shows that this inhibitory effect is stable and persistent. It can be seen from a heterogeneity analysis that the implementation of the policy has a more significant effect on poverty reduction in areas with a higher incidence of rural poverty and a larger scale of land remediation, as well as areas in the eastern and western regions. A mechanism analysis shows that natural disasters, output value and technological progress play a partial intermediary role in the poverty reduction effects of high-standard basic farmland construction policy, and the intermediary effects are 5.79%, 44.03%, and 14.13%, respectively. This paper suggests that we should continue to promote the construction of high-standard basic farmland, explore suitable construction modes of high-standard basic farmland for different regions, continuously promote the process of agricultural modernization, and broaden the ways through which rural residents are able to accumulate capital to promote rural poverty reduction and revitalization.

Applying Decision Trees to Examine the Nonlinear Effects of Multiscale Transport Accessibility on Rural Poverty in China

Accessibility plays an important role in alleviating rural poverty. Previous studies have explored the relationship between accessibility and rural poverty, but they offer limited evidence of the collective influence of multiscale transport accessibility (town-level, county-level, and prefecture-level accessibility) and its nonlinear effects on rural poverty. This study adopted the gradient-boosting decision tree model to explore the nonlinear association and threshold effects of multiscale transport accessibility on the rural poverty incidence (RPI). We selected Huining, a poverty-stricken county in China, as a case study. The results show that multiscale transport accessibility collectively has larger predictive power than other variables. Specifically, town-level accessibility (12.97%) plays a dominant role in predicting the RPI, followed by county-level accessibility (9.50%) and prefecture-level accessibility (7.38%). We further identified the nonlinear association and effective ranges of multiscale transport accessibility to guide poverty-alleviation policy. Our results help inform policy and planning on sustainable poverty reduction and rural vitalization.

Reducing Rural Poverty Through Non-farm Job Creation in India.

Based on secondary data, this paper estimates the incidence of poverty by sectoral employment status of individuals and it explores the factors determining individual’s joint probabilities of being poor and being engaged in the non-farm sector jobs (at micro-level). It also finds the impact (at macro-level) of rural non-farm sector employment on the incidence of rural poverty, and it identifies the subsectors of the non-farm sector, which help reduce the incidence of rural poverty in India. Using bivariate probit, recursive bivariate probit regression models, it finds that individual’s human capabilities owing to better education and training and higher occupations of their head of the family significantly determine their probability of being employed in the non-farm sectors, which in turn help reduce their chance of being poor. The panel system generalized methods of moment result suggest that the provincial states of India, which have achieved higher level of non-farm sector NSDP growth along with the creation of jobs through an improved level of infrastructure (roads, railways, banking, and industries) base, have succeeded to reduce the incidence of rural poverty to substantially low levels. Based on these findings, it is argued that the incidence of rural poverty can be reduced on a sustainable basis through the development of rural manufacturing, and by promoting growth of modern service sectors like education, health, communication, real estate, and finance and insurance, along with the infrastructural development.

Rural and Urban Poverty Trends in India and Gujarat

The present study investigates rural and urban poverty trends of Gujarat and India using a graphical and trend line method. The association of agriculture and allied sector growth rate, population growth rate, and GDP at factor cost with poverty trend were examined by correlation matrix in India during five-year plans. Poverty at National level has declined from 1951-52 to 2011-12. In 1966-67, the poverty rate reached the maximum level, and after the introduction of the green revolution in 1967-68, it has declined. Furthermore, in 2005-06, the MNREGA program’s implementation also influenced the reduction in poverty rate. Both rural and urban poverty at National level declined, however, rural poverty incidence was higher than urban poverty, which indicated rural poverty played a critical role in the overall incidence of Indian poverty. Rural and urban poverty in Gujarat has declined since 1958-59. A negative association between agriculture and allied sector growth rate and GDP at factor cost with poverty trend showed reduction in India’s incidence of poverty. Population growth rate positively affected poverty, which shows that as the population increases, poverty incidence also increases.

The effects of social security expenditure on reducing income inequality and rural poverty in China

Social security has, as one of its primary aims, the provision of financial support to those deemed to be poor or facing the threat of poverty. Based on China’s national statistical data covering social insurance, social assistance, and social welfare between the period 1978–2018, this paper evaluates the effect of social security expenditure in reducing income inequality and rural poverty with cointegration analysis. It was found that there is a positive correlation between social security expenditure and the income gap of urban and rural residents in the long run, but the effect is very limited; nearly 99% of the changes of the urban–rural income gap come from its own contributions. Further research also shows that the elasticity of rural poverty incidence to social security expenditure is –0.2255, which indicates social security expenditure helps reduce rural absolute poverty. Based on these findings, the policy implications can be that much social security expenditure and a more equitable social security system should be encouraged. It will become one of the major anti-poverty strategies after 2020 in China when we win the battle against absolute poverty.

Agricultural Productivity Growth and Poverty Reduction: Evidence from Thailand

AbstractRaising agricultural productivity in developing countries is often said to reduce poverty more than comparable growth arising from other sectors. This claim has frequently been based on casual theorising, rather than empirical evidence. Productivity growth generates additional income and must benefit someone, though not necessarily the poor. It is conceivable that most, or even all of the benefits might go to others. Using region‐level data from Thailand, we study the relationship between agricultural productivity growth and rural poverty incidence. The dependent variable for our regression analysis is the annual rate of change in rural poverty incidence at the regional level between the years for which poverty data are available. Agricultural productivity is measured as the annual rate of change in regional total agricultural productivity, covering the same time intervals as the poverty observations, but lagged one calendar year. Other control variables include regional non‐agricultural incomes and the real price of food. The estimated coefficient on the change in agricultural productivity is negative and highly significant, implying that agricultural productivity growth does reduce rural poverty, holding other variables constant, though not more so than non‐agricultural sources of income growth. The poverty‐reducing contribution of recent agricultural productivity growth has been small. The poverty‐reducing effects of long‐term drivers of agricultural productivity growth are also analysed, using simulations based on the estimated model.

Poverty Vulnerability and Poverty Causes in Rural China

Data from China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs show that more than 75% of the country’s poor live in rural areas. Therefore, to achieve the goal of poverty alleviation by 2020, the problem of rural poverty requires urgent attention. Based on the entropy method, we herein assess the level of poverty vulnerability in each province in China to guide the direction of future poverty alleviation efforts. In addition, based on the logarithmic mean Divisia index method and the grey relational analysis method, we studied the effects and contributions of rural poverty incidence, rural agricultural outcomes per capita, the proportion of agricultural outcomes, gross domestic product per capita, and total population on rural poverty. We found that, when it comes to natural resources, human resources, physical assets, financial assets, and social resources, the most vulnerable areas are concentrated in western China. We suggest the government pay close attention to the interests of individuals in this region to balance economic development, distribute the benefits of economic development to the rural poor, and narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas.

Rural Poverty Patterns and Influencing Factors in Yunnan Province, China: Based on County Level Dataset

The identification of poverty at the county level is the precondition for poverty alleviation by formulating accurate strategies that are targeted for a certain area. Yunnan Province has the largest number of poverty counties in China. The vast number of people living under the poverty-line, and the deep degree of poverty across a wide distribution range, pose major challenges. Based on the rural poverty incidence data, this paper describes the rural poverty patterns in Yunnan Province in 2010 and 2015, and then it explores the main factors which influence the incidence and changes in rural poverty at the county level in Yunnan Province using a stepwise regression analysis method. This study found that the rural poverty in counties of Yunnan Province was deeply affected by natural conditions and the geographical environment. In 2010 and 2015, the rural poverty situation in the middle region of Yunnan Province was relatively light, while it was more serious in the northwest, northeast and south regions. The pattern of county poverty is in good agreement with the topography and landforms of Yunnan Province and the poverty-stricken areas. There are strong correlations between the incidence of rural poverty in Yunnan Province with both the annual per capita net income of rural residents and the degree of agricultural mechanization. These factors are related to the living standards and agricultural production necessary for the peasantry to sustain their livelihood. The change in the incidence of rural poverty at the county level in Yunnan Province from 2010 to 2015 is significantly correlated with changes in the value-added of the primary industries and the degree of agricultural mechanization. These correlations indicate that the development of primary industry plays a key role in the process of lifting rural residents in Yunnan Province out of poverty so they can achieve prosperity. Therefore, improving the annual per capita net income of rural residents and the degree of agricultural mechanization for rural areas in Yunnan Province are still the main points for focused efforts. In the current phase of poverty alleviation, Yunnan Province should emphasize increasing rural residents' income and agricultural production and management in order to formulate effective policies and measures for poverty alleviation.

Exploring the Spatial Determinants of Rural Poverty in the Interprovincial Border Areas of the Loess Plateau in China: A Village-Level Analysis Using Geographically Weighted Regression

The spatial pattern of rural poverty and its influencing factors are unique in regions located in the “double zone”, overlaying the Loess Plateau landform and interprovincial border socioeconomic zone. Using Huining County, located in the interprovincial border area of the Loess Plateau, as a case study, this paper examines the spatial heterogeneity of rural poverty patterns and poverty-causing factors by using geographically weighted regression (GWR) modeling. The potential accessibility indicator is employed to identify the formative mechanism of rural poverty. The results show that rural poverty is significantly correlated with county-level accessibility, water resource accessibility, and town-level accessibility. County-level accessibility and town-level accessibility have significant border effects on rural poverty. The arid characteristics in certain areas of the Loess Plateau mean that the impact of water resource accessibility on the incidence of rural poverty is second only to that of county-level accessibility. Forestland resources have a positive correlation with the incidence of rural poverty in the region dominated by farming. Finally, targeted poverty reduction policies are proposed based on the results of the analysis of poverty-causing factors. The findings derived from this paper can help other developing countries in designing their own poverty reduction policies.

Household empowerment as the key to eradicate poverty incidence

AbstractThe current study aimed to investigate how the household empowerment can potentially reduce the rural poverty incidence. The data were collected through multistage random sampling from the rural households of 24 villages in Southern Punjab, Pakistan. A total of 600 households were selected as sample pool. Face‐to‐face interviews with the household heads were conducted. The household empowerment was measured through an index that was adopted from Abrar‐ul‐haq (“An assessment of the role of household empowerment in alleviating poverty in Southern Punjab, Pakistan” (Ph.D. Dissertation), School of Economics, Finance and Banking, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 2017). The binary logit model was used to analyze the impact of household empowerment with other control variables on poverty incidence. The results of the current study confirm the negative nexus between household empowerment and poverty incidence of rural households as the study reported that the probabilities (odds ratio: 0.877) of being poor are reduced by increasing the empowerment (in every aspect, economically, politically, and socially) of the households, and the results are statistically significant at the 1% level of significance. Based on empirical results, this study suggests that household empowerment has significant potential to reduce poverty incidence in the rural areas of Southern Punjab, Pakistan.

The dynamics of rural non-farm employment in India

This paper analyzes the dynamics of the rural non-farm employment in the fifteen major states of India by using panel data analysis for the period 1972–2010. The analysis indicates that there are significant gender differences in the factors affecting the level and the growth of rural non-farm employment. The level of urbanization, the rural literacy rate and the rural unemployment rate have a significant positive effect on the incidence of non-farm employment for male workers. For female workers, agricultural productivity and the incidence of rural poverty have a significant positive effect. There is evidence of convergence in the incidence of rural non-farm employment for both male and female workers, indicating that states with initially low incidence of rural non-farm employment experienced a higher growth rate in the rural non-farm employment than states with initially high incidence.

Poverty analysis using small area estimation: an application to conservation agriculture in Uganda

AbstractThis article demonstrates the utility of small area estimation of poverty (SAEp) methods for researchers wishing to conduct a detailed welfare analysis as part of a larger survey of a small geographic area. This study applies SAEp methods as part of an impact assessment of a conservation agriculture production system in Eastern Uganda. Using SAEp, we estimate Foster–Greer–Thorbecke rural poverty indices, estimate the effects of per‐acre farm profit increases to poor households on the indices, and compare the findings to estimates of net returns from a field‐level evaluation of conservation agriculture for maize farmers. Results suggest that increasing the farm profits of the bottom 30% of households by $1.60 per‐acre per‐season would reduce rural poverty incidence by 1 percentage point. Available data on the net returns to conservation agriculture indicate that even these modest increases are achievable for few adopting households.

Trends in rural poverty in india during 1973–74 to 2011–12

In this paper made an attempt to examine the trends in rural poverty in India using secondary data for the time period from 1973–74 to 2011–12. The study considers all states and union territories of India as population and seven states from high per capita income states and seven states from low per capita income states are selected as sample. For assessing poverty levels of sample states, the variables like number of rural population below poverty, percentage of rural population below poverty line and rural poverty line in rupees are taken in to consideration. Growth rates, CV analysis, f-test and t-test are applied along with descriptive statistics for the analysis. Our result shows that the trend in rural absolute poverty has been declining over a time period, but not same kind in high per capita income and low per capita income states and there is significant mean deference noticed. The incidence of rural poverty in high per capita income states and low per capita income states of India was decreasing and varied considerably during the study period. Rural poverty growth rates have fallen quickly for all high per capita income states more than 10 per cent of compound annual growth, while in all low per capita income states less than 10 per cent of compound annual growth. There is significant mean difference witnessed between high per capita income and low per capita income states in declining poverty.

The influences of aging population and economic growth on Chinese rural poverty

Based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MOCA) in China, this study uses multi-parameter income distribution function and decoupling theory to investigate rural poverty in China. We focus on how demographic structures and economic development have been restructuring the incidence of rural poverty. The study shows that the second kind of generalized beta distribution functions can fit the income distribution of China's impoverished population in rural areas. We discover that the income inequality of the impoverished population in rural areas has gotten worse. To some extent, income inequality will increase the difficulty of reducing poverty, although income increases can improve the living conditions of the rural poor. According to our analysis of decoupling theory, the positive impacts of economic growth on rural poverty alleviation have disappeared in most places. That is, economic growth cannot solve the problem of rural poverty, as previously assumed, and the increasingly serious aging of the population has become the key influencing factor of poverty incidence in most rural areas.