Rural Sustainability Research Articles

Increasing yield and farm income of upland farmers: The case of Panay Island Upland Sustainable Rural Development Project in the Philippines

The 17th Sustainable Development Goal aims to enhance the international cooperation between developed and least-developed countries, and the Official Development Assistance (ODA) program is the largest source of external support in the attainment of this goal. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of the Panay Island Upland Sustainable Rural Development Project (PIU-SRDP), an ODA project supported by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in partnership with the Department of Agriculture and the Local Government Units of project municipalities in the Philippines. We focused on Phase II of the PIU-SRDP, which implemented randomly various agriculture-based income-generating projects, aimed at improving the sustainable productivity of low-income farming households. Based on a spatial and intertemporal variations of the project, we exploit a difference-in-difference approach using household-level data. The results suggest that the project significantly increased the rice yield and farm income of beneficiaries. With the opposing views about the true impacts of ODA programs, our study shows evidence of the positive effects of an ODA project on farmer-beneficiaries. This study provides insights for future engagement and implementation of related community-based ODA, agriculture, and rural development projects.

Rural Urban Migration and Food Sustainability in China

Rural Urban Migration and Food Sustainability in China

How Can Development Strategies Foster Agri-digitalisation in the Era of Climate Change?

In recent years, several forward-looking initiatives have been taken in the direction of digital and sustainability transitions. Digitalisation is also gaining importance in EU, national agricultural and rural development policies, as it can enhance all three dimensions of sustainability and can lead to more efficient agricultural production and development. In this study, we conducted a consistency analysis to identify the interdependencies, impacts, and possible contradictions between the strategic objectives. The analysis compares the EU Common Agricultural Policy objectives with the Second Climate Change Strategy of Hungary (NCCS-2), the National Framework Strategy on Sustainable Development (NFSSD), the National Digital Agricultural Strategy (NDAS), and the National Rural Strategy (NRS) and explores the policy linkages between digital and sustainability transitions. The strategy documents are examined hierarchically between the EU and national levels, with a particular focus on the sector’s important role in climate change mitigation and adaptation-related processes. The results can support the emergence of innovative solutions and activities in rural areas and can contribute to improving the competitiveness of the agricultural sector, thereby supporting both the decision-making process and the achievement of rural sustainability ambitions.

Advocacy coalitions in rural revitalisation: The roles of policy brokers and policy learning

Vibrant rural communities are an integral component of sustainable societies due to their ability to nurture and sustain ecological and cultural diversity. Yet changing social and economic processes have led to the break-down of rural communities. This paper demonstrates how collaborative forms of governance contribute to policy learning and so rural sustainability. An analysis of a case study on rural revitalisation using the Advocacy Coalition Framework and narrative analysis reveal how common misconceptions can hinder revitalisation efforts. The role of a policy broker is shown to be vital in the dissolution of these policy misconceptions. Emphasis is on policy brokering strategies, particularly the use of venue creation, issue (re)framing and knowledge co-production, which resulted in changing policy believes and so policy learning. As a result of stakeholder coalitions being inspired to reconsider their beliefs, the alignment of policy goals became possible and the effects of imbalanced power relations mitigated.

Influence of Socio-economic Attributes on Travel Behaviour in the Rural Areas of Nigeria: Towards a Sustainable Rural Planning and Development

ABSTRACT The socio-economic characteristics of individual and group have been found to significantly have an impact on their mobility and travel behaviour. Hence, this study examined the influence of socio-economic characteristics of households in the Rural areas of Nigeria on trip making. The study adopted the multi-stage sampling technique method where 12, 365 registered buildings were systematically selected out of a total of 28,341 buildings. Systematic sampling technique was used to survey 4 percent of households, representing 495 household heads of a total 12,365 registered buildings by means of questionnaire administration. The study revealed that majority of the respondents were between the age of 60–69 years and utilized the non-motorized (walk & bicycle) means of transport. The result of the multiple regression analysis further revealed that Age and Income were the significant socio-economic variables influencing trip making of households. This study thus advocates the influence of demographic attributes on households’ travel behaviour. Therefore, rural communities should be given equal privilege as urban areas when formulating transport policies as a result of their unique and distinct socio-economic attributes.

Sustainable Rural Tourism Management: Upgrading eco-friendly and self-sustainable hotels in Costa Rica

Rural tourism represents a social innovative approach with a goal to conserve natural biodiversity where local communities showcase their cultural heritage and biodiversity. Though, it entails more than just visiting an all-inclusive hotel, it requires a holistic business approach that is conscious of the current tourist market demands. These approaches must make the best use of internet-connected gadgets to transmit data, which is translated into transformative actions, with the objective of improving systems adaptability. However, in Costa Rica, tourism accounts for over a quarter of its total export revenue, especially ecotourism as the most significant form of economic tourism activity. This research analyzes the administrative model of eco-friendly-self-sustainable hotels in rural areas of Costa Rica. Additionally, rural tourism also helps to protect the environment and improve livelihoods of communities. Costa Rica has enormous and innumerable opportunities to develop eco-friendly tourism. There are many reasons why we can think of developing this kind of business within the country’s strategic development plans, such as geographical location, natural resources, social and political factors.

Exploration of Informal Farmland Leasing Mode: A Case Study of Huang Village in China

How to effectively promote the large-scale and market-oriented farmland leasing process in China is one of the most important practical issues concerning the current academic circle and decision makers. However, restricted by the current situation of rural social development, farmers’ spontaneous and informal farmland leasing is still widespread. Exploring the long-term evolution characteristics of informal farmland leasing at the village scale is of great significance for optimizing the process of farmland leasing, perfecting the farmland leasing market, and promoting moderate-scale farmland management. Therefore, based on field survey data from the whole village and social network analysis methods, this research conducted a detailed empirical study on the characteristics, development process, and consequences of informal farmland leasing behavior in a traditional rural society in central China. The results show that with the development of time, the scope of informal farmland leasing in Huang village has been expanding, of which more than 70% of the farmland in 2020 was leased among acquaintances. Farmland leasing among acquaintances is becoming a trend toward informal farmland leasing in some villages. At present, 13 large-scale households lease 73.9% of the total area of farmland leasing in Huang village. The informal farmland leasing in the village has basically formed a centralized circulation pattern with the villager group as the core, which can promote moderate-scale farming to a certain extent. However, there are also problems, such as the ability of a simple internal leasing mode to resist external risks is limited. The findings may be helpful in rethinking China’s farmland leasing policy and provide useful insights into the multifaceted rural sustainability of other similar traditional villages.

A Novel Intelligent Leakage Monitoring-Warning System for Sustainable Rural Drinking Water Supply

Leakage occurs in rural water supply pipelines very often and its locating is quite demanding even for specialists, which could result in a poor operation efficiency of rural water supply projects and thus a low rural water supply guarantee rate. In view of this problem, the detection of leakage, as well as its prediction, is of great significance for the operation, maintenance, and administration of rural water supply projects. The traditional monitoring-warning systems for urban water distribution networks cannot be applied to rural water distribution networks, due to various limitations. Meanwhile, as with the traditional models, most new approaches based on machine learning such as the artificial neural network (ANN), probabilistic neural network (PNN), and statistical learning theory (SLT) do not fit rural water distribution networks much better, being unable to converge and force high-accuracy results with small sample sizes, which is a crucial demand to meet when dealing with rural water supply pipelines. Extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), a model that specializes in small sample sizes and has a high generalization ability, was applied to a rural water supply project in Ningxia, China. In this study, a monitoring-warning system featuring both leakage locating and quantity estimation was established based on XGBoost. The accuracy and F1-score of the leakage locating model were 95% and 93%, respectively, while those of the leakage quantity model reached 96% and 97%, respectively. Furthermore, the pressure of monitoring stations could be obtained through the feature importance analysis enabled by XGBoost, which is essential for leakage warning. These results indicate that this system based on XGBoost could be a promising solution to the leakage issue in rural water supply projects, as a great inspiration for future developments in intelligent monitoring-warning systems, thus providing reliable approaches for the sustainable development of rural drinking water supply projects.

Taneyan Lanjang Shared Home Gardens and Sustainable Rural Livelihoods of Ethnic Madurese in Madura Island, Indonesia

The ethnic Madurese are among the top five most populous ethnic groups in Indonesia. Their traditional settlements have a special design called Taneyan Lanjang (TL). TL settlements consist of several elements, which are arranged in a specific pattern that is affected by local and Islamic culture. The gardening space of a TL settlement—here referred to as the shared home garden (SHG)—is shared by several family households. The ethnic Madurese apply traditional knowledge to manage their home gardens. This study investigated the features of TLs and SHGs, mostly in relation to cultural matters, the utilization of plants, management based on local knowledge, and their contribution to rural livelihoods. The study area consisted of the four regencies of Madura Island, Indonesia. A total of 200 TL settlements were observed, and 4 key informants and 400 respondents who were engaged in TL were questioned through in-depth interviews. The plant species cultivated in the SHGs were recorded and identified according to the database of The Plant List. In total, 108 plant species within 40 plant families were recorded. Fabaceae had the highest number of species, with 10 species (9.26%), most of which are used as food (65.7%). We identified and characterized the most important services and functions provided by SHGs to rural livelihoods that directly benefit rural communities.

Sustainable Livelihood Security in the Poyang Lake Eco-economic Zone: Ecologically Secure, Economically Efficient or Socially Equitable?

Sustainable Livelihood Security (SLS) remains a rarely considered yet important issue for rural sustainability and natural resource management. Particularly in China, rural SLS research in a typical area is urgently needed, but insufficient under the background of National Rural Revitalization and Ten-year Fishing Ban of Yangtze River. Focusing on the policy-targeted inland lake area, we proposed a Livelihood Security Analysis (LSA) framework by establishing an adaptive indicator system and integrating multiple econometrical and geographical methods. This study aims to evaluate the SLS in Poyang Lake Eco-economic Zone comprehensively from the three aspects of ecology, economy and society, analyze their spatial patterns, identify the main constraints, and finally give specific suggestions for improving rural sustainability management. The results showed that rural SLS in the inland great lake area tended to be vulnerable mainly due to the lagging economic efficiency and unbalanced social equality, and mediated by regional ecological characteristics. The overall SLS and Ecological Security Index (ESI) were higher in the north and lower in the south, while Economic Efficiency Index (EEI) and Social Equality Index (SEI) were at the middle level and circularly distributed around Nanchang City. The dominating factors which have greatly shaped the spatial pattern of SLS include rural per capita electricity consumption, fishery breeding area, population dependency ratio, urbanization rate, and fishery population. The obstacle degree is ranked as economic system > social system > ecological system. An outdated economy and incomplete social services are the main constraints, characterized by weak electricity consumption, limited beds in hospitals, low urbanization rate, deficient agricultural machinery power, and a small agricultural output value. Therefore, one urgent need is to activate the rural economy by reinforcing rural electric power facilities and promoting agricultural mechanization. In addition, transforming the peasants/fishermen to the non-agricultural sector should be accelerated, which will help to reduce ecological pressure, boost urban-rural integration and narrow the income gap.

TOWARDS GREEN ECONOMY : THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PLANNING, THE CASE ON UPPER CITARUM RIVER BASIN WEST JAVA PROVINCE INDONESIA

Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development on Upper Citarum River Basin has important role in increasing local economic growth, social equity and environmental quality. It is essential to reduce population pressure on rural resources. A quantitative model on population pressure and its potential for development planning can help to achieve a more holistic regional planning since agricultural development, the creation of employment in the non-agricultural sector and population growth are tied together. By providing local input (resources), agropolitan, training, credit, marketing, ecoretail, ecotourism, bio-energy, bio- industries, and their job & income multiplier effects can be expected to increase value added creating additional income and new employment both on-farm and off-farm as well as non-farm sectors. A model used to develop sustainable agriaquaculture on the following area is agriecobussiness with low external input sustainable agriculture (LEISA) amongs land use patterns covering ricefield, horticulture, fish capture and aquaculture, drawdown area, agroforestry, husbandry, and farm estate management.

Community Empowerment in Culinary Tourism as Sustainable Rural Development

The development of economic institutions through business groups and Village-Owned Enterprises has become the foundation of the economy at the regional, urban and national levels. The study used the qualitative Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) method to identify community problems and potentials and understand deeply the situation of a community. The research targets are the Soto Klamud Business Group and the Peanut and Seed Economic Business Group which are located in the Toyareja Village, in Purbalingga. which can be used as examples of success in other research locations, namely the Kartadesa Village Owned Enterprise in Sambak Village, Kajoran District, Magelang Regency of Central Java. The data is collected through interviews, documentation, observation, and Participatory Decision Making (PDM). In addition, the informants have decided purposively namely the management of business groups and village-owned enterprises, village governments, and customers. The study used qualitative data analysis by collecting data, reducing, categorizing, verifying, triangulating, and drawing conclusions. The results showed that: (1) The process of developing socio-economic engineering in business groups must be supported by universities or academics and social institutions as activists who sustainably care about community empowerment by conducting counseling, training on institutional and business management as well as marketing, and assisting with access to partnerships. (2) Sustainable development in culinary tourism can be realized through empowerment programs such as counseling, training, and mentoring for the younger generation to become successful entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurship in Tourism Studies in the 21st Century: A Bibliometric Study of Wos and Scopus

Entrepreneurship and tourism are linked as relevant aspects of study due to their influence on the society’s development. In attempt to identify the main theoretical contributions in the 21st century, a bibliometric study was carried out, based on publications of tourism entrepreneurship in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases. As a result, data from 268 documents were obtained and processed in VosViewer. The main findings place Haber, Altinay, and Hallak as the most cited authors; when analyzing co-authorship, co-citation, and bibliographic coupling by authors, the distribution changes in relation to the contribution. England, Australia, and United States are the main countries that originate publications on the subject and have an impact on their dissemination; and Tourism Management is the Journal with the highest number of citations. The topics were grouped into three clusters: (1) Sustainable Rural Tourism, (2) Small business and lifestyle, and (3) Social entrepreneurship, with a predominantly human and social focus over the economic vision. This study can be the basis for further studies about adjacent, related, or emerging topics to entrepreneurship in tourism, as well as to generate practical proposals for new or potential entrepreneurs.

WEB GIS: The Promotion Model of Ngerangan Tourist Village in Klaten Regency through The Sustainable Rural Tourism Context During The Covid-19 Pandemic

The application of large-scale social restrictions (LSSR) during the Covid 19 pandemic in Indonesia significantly impacted the tourism sector. A Sustainable Rural Tourism model is expected to develop tourist village development during the Covid 19 pandemic through the WEB GIS (Website Geographical Information Systems) approach. It creates smart tourism through tourist information systems integrated with tourist websites. Ngerangan Tourist Village in Klaten Regency is a village where most of the population's economy is dependent on MSME (Micro, Small, and Medium enterprises) and farming activities. The research aims to formulate a tourism promotion model in Ngerangan tourism village through WEB GIS. The method used is quantitative. First, identifying the data needs such as spatial data (tourist attractions, tourist safety routes types, and infrastructure for implementing health protocols) and non-spatial data (information on MSME and virtual tours). Second, designing the tourism promotion system through WEB GIS and third, testing to see the output of the WEB GIS produced. The research output is Web GIS using story maps application contains two spatial information about the Ngerangan tourist village. First, spatial information about tourist attractions includes locations, photos, and descriptions of tourist attractions. Second, spatial information regarding health protocols facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic includes locations, photos, and descriptions of health protocol facilities

Sources of Financing Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Areas in the EU in the Financial Perspective of 2021-2027

In the Financial Perspective of 2021-2027, the European Commission has earmarked an amount of 365 billion euros for agricultural and rural development under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), compared to 416 billion euros in the previous Perspective. Of the planned funds in the current financial perspective, EUR 265.2 billion was allocated for direct payments (previously EUR 294.9 billion) and EUR 78.8 billion for rural development (previously EUR 95.3 billion). There was also an additional allocation of EUR 20 billion for market support and EUR 10 billion for the Horizon Europe research program. Overall, the 2021-2027 Financial Perspective budgeted funds from the EU budget at 88% compared to the previous Financial Perspective for actions at CAP. The new funding rules indicate a wider range of powers granted by the European Commission to Member States under subsidiarity delimitation. As a result, Member States will be able to make greater use of spending powers to take account of local conditions and needs in strategic planning for agriculture and rural areas. The main role of CAP, as in the previous perspective, will be to provide measures to support sustainable agriculture and rural development in individual Member States.

LAND FRAGMENTATION AND RURAL SUSTAINABILITY IN BADE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, YOBE STATE, NIGERIA

Land is one of the major factors in agricultural and other production activities which its accessibility and utilisation affect the outcome, especially in rural areas. This paper analyses land fragmentation and Rural Sustainability in Bade LGA, Yobe State, Nigeria. Identify rural social sustainability factors in the study area and examine the relationship between land fragmentation and rural sustainability to recommend the best possible land-based rural sustainability practice. The survey method was administered to a random sample of household heads in the study area. Simpson Index, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Partial Least Square- Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the data. Thus, the results revealed the extent of land fragmentation in the study areas (β=-0.076, t=1.074; p > 0.05). The results of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) showed that all the 18 causes of the extent of land fragmentation have factor loadings ranges from 0.760- 0.978. Hence, these analysis factors are considered the key causes of land fragmentation in the study area. PLS-SEM findings highlighted a significant alignment between land fragmentation, causes, and rural sustainability, all of which formed the basis for developing the conceptual framework for mitigating land fragmentation challenges. The conceptual framework provides effective land management and land use planning, thus enhance rural sustainability in the Yobe state, Nigeria. The study recommends review land inheritance laws and other laws regarding communal land allocation and ownership to resolve land fragmentation and population control in Yobe state.

Three-Dimensional Paradigm of Rural Prosperity: A Feast of Rural Embodiment, Post-Neoliberalism, and Sustainability

Each practical action in rural areas should be based on a comprehensive, new, and innovative theoretical paradigm. For nearly three decades, the global economic system has embraced rural entrepreneurship as a “productive” and innovative strategy in rural development in many countries, including both underdeveloped and developed countries. At present, we have large companies, which due to government development interventions, are replaced with small- and medium-sized businesses under inflexible and extreme entrepreneurialism. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to shed light on the prevailing entrepreneurship practice and discourse, criticize them, and finally introduce a new paradigm known as “paradigm of rural prosperity” (PRP). In this work, Aram Ziai’s theory of skeptical post-development was used, along with Campbell Jones and André Spicer’s critical theory of entrepreneurship and Rosenqvist’s theory of the conceptualization of rurality and rural environment called “hermeneutical realism”. The present paper attempts to base the paradigm of rural prosperity on three pillars of analysis and explanation: (a) rural embodiment, (b) neoliberalism, and (c) concept of sustainability. Although some case studies in Iran have been used as empirical evidence, this paper argues that the paradigm of rural prosperity is universal in nature and can be used in any geographical and cultural context to provide new rural development.

Using a leverage points perspective to compare social-ecological systems: a case study on rural landscapes

ABSTRACT A leverage points perspective recognises different levels of systemic depth, ranging from the relatively shallow levels of parameters and feedbacks to the deeper levels of system design and intent. Analysing a given social-ecological system for its characteristics across these four levels of systemic depth provides a useful diagnostic to better understand sustainability problems, and can complement other types of cause-and-effect systems modelling. Moreover, the structured comparison of multiple systems can highlight whether sustainability challenges in different systems have a similar origin (e.g. similar feedbacks or similar design). We used a leverage points perspective to systematically compare findings from three in-depth social-ecological case studies, which investigated rural landscapes in southeastern Australia, central Romania, and southwestern Ethiopia. Inductive coding of key findings documented in over 60 empirical publications was used to generate synthesis statements of key findings in the three case studies. Despite major socioeconomic and ecological differences, many synthesis statements applied to all three case studies. Major sustainability problems occurred at the design and intent levels. For example, at the intent level, all three rural landscapes were driven by goals and paradigms that mirrored a productivist green revolution discourse. Our paper thus highlights that there are underlying challenges for rural sustainability across the world, which appear to apply similarly across strongly contrasting socioeconomic contexts. Sustainability interventions should be mindful of such deep similarities in system characteristics. We conclude that a leverage points perspective could be used to compare many other types of social-ecological systems around the world.

Success and resilience factors of rural enterprises in Mexico: RENDRUS case

Objective: To identify the success and resilience factors of rural enterprises in Mexico in order to contribute to the theoretical and empirical differentiation of these concepts. Design/Methodology/Approach: We used the National Network for Sustainable Rural Development Companies as a case study to formulate key questions to identify their success and business resilience factors. Results: Permanent job creation turned out to be the main success factor, and timely delivery of the product was the main resilience factor. Study Limitations/Implications: Recognizing the difference between success and resilience factors can help rural enterprises, their leaders, and decision-makers in the rural sector to understand and adjust their operating strategies based on their objectives. Findings/Conclusions: A success factor is a way to stand out among similar rural enterprises, while a business resilience factor serves to face adversity and continue over time.

Spatiotemporal dynamics of rice–crayfish field in Mid-China and its socioeconomic benefits on rural revitalisation

Agricultural sustainability has important value for boosting regional growth. In recent years, the unprecedented expansion of rice–crayfish field (RCF) in the rural areas of mid-China has raised great concerns in terms of its spatiotemporal dynamics and socioeconomic impact. With Jianli City in mid-China as a case, this study aimed to (1) comprehensively investigate the land-use change in RCF with combined remote sensing and geospatial data analysis, (2) delineate the variations of RCF and socioeconomic benefits from 2010 to 2019 and (3) explore the influencing factors and driving mechanism by using a multiscale geographically weighted regression model. Results illustrated that the RCF development in Jianli City showed an overall uptrend between 2000 and 2019. The area of RCF in 2019 expanded by 599.95% from 2015 levels (from 10,350 ha to 72,445 ha). These extensively expanded RCFs were mainly converted from paddy fields and are distributed around the water area. In terms of socioeconomic benefits, the economic income of villagers increased, whilst the number of out-migrant workers decreased. RCF development effectively contributed to regional economic growth and reduced rural depopulation, thereby facilitating rural transformation from traditional agricultural to characteristic agriculture. The findings clearly showed the spatiotemporal dynamics of RCF and its positive impact on the socioeconomic development of rural areas, thus providing evidence for formulating targeted rural revitalisation policies to achieve rural sustainability.