Sustainability Of Rural Economy Research Articles

Assessing social capital and its impact on economic performance: A comparative study of members and non-members of farmer producer companies in India

Farmer producer companies (FPCs), modern farmer collectives registered under India’s Companies Act, play a crucial role in providing core services like input supply, marketing, technical, and financial support, as well as auxiliary services such as social capital and consultancy, which are linked to higher economic performance and innovation. The study analyzes the levels of social capital among members and non-members of FPCs and their relationship to the economic performance of their members. The data on social capital were collected from 20 FPCs (292 members and 77 non-members) from Maharashtra state of India. Unpaired student T-tests and Mann-Whitney tests were performed to compare the levels of social capital among the members and non-members. OLS regression was performed to understand the difference in social capital and its effect on economic performance. The results reveal that all the indicators of social capital were significantly higher for the members (Mean = 4.27) than for non-members (Mean = 3.14). The social capital indicators related to membership and participation in groups (p-value < 0.10) and the sharing of production and other information (p-value < 0.01) positively affected economic performance. Higher levels of education (p-value < 0.05) and frequent contact with members (p-value < 0.01) positively affected, whereas higher landholding (p-value < 0.10) and years of membership (p-value < 0.01) negatively affected the economic performance of members. As the Indian government plans to add 10,000 FPCs in the next three years, the strategy to increase the social capital of FPCs may enhance the overall resilience and sustainability of rural economies.

Impact of COVID-19 on the Livelihood of Indian Rural Population

COVID-19 spread has impacted all shards of life of larger population around the world, the effect remained devastating in developing countries with poor to average health infrastructure. In many developing countries like India where agriculture always remain backbone of economy and power livelihood to large segment of rural masses, COVID-19 spread created huge consequences on general health, livelihoods, and sustainability of rural economy. Unrehearsed mechanism, processes, and policies has given a big blow to informal rural economy. The paper is an attempt to comprehensively measure the effect of COVID-19 on agriculture, economy, and livelihood of rural India. Research material, including secondary data available for various aspect of rural economy, has been explored along with various village centric studies conducted and published by different researchers. Researcher also tried to suggest how the livelihood and economy can be protected.

Shedding light on rural innovation: Introducing and applying a comprehensive indicator system

AbstractInnovation is acknowledged as an engine to boost competitiveness and sustainability of rural economies. However, there is scarce evidence on the patterns and dynamics of rural innovation: OECD and European Union indicators currently used to identify and measure innovation do not cover small‐scale, low technological and low intensity‐R&D innovations. Recent research has shed some light on “hidden” innovation patterns and on their importance to the competitiveness of traditional low‐tech sectors and the vitality of regions whose economies depend mostly on low‐tech activities. This paper introduces a comprehensive innovation indicator system addressing innovation processes in rural‐based organizations. Its application in the Portuguese case made it possible to identify and understand the specificities of innovation patterns in rural areas.

The role of households in sustaining rural economies: a structural path analysis

Rural households have become more diverse in terms of the geographic origin of their income and their spatial spending patterns. As a consequence, the economic well being of rural businesses and that of rural residents are less interdependent than in the past. This raises questions about the sustainability of rural economies and their vulnerability to external influences. The structural path approach is used to investigate the role played by different types of household in transmitting economic influence in the Western Isles region of Scotland. Households with children play the most significant role in connecting the local economic system. It is argued that structural path analysis can be used to provide policy relevant information, complementary to that gained from more conventional social accounting matrix multiplier decomposition techniques. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.

BIOMASU ENERĢIJA LAUKU VIDĒ

The global trend in population growth let us forecast that population will increase to 8500 millions by the year 2025. The main task for future development is sustainable food production for growing population. At the same time fossil fuel resources will decrease and we shall turn to renewable energy resources. The goal to double amount of renewable energy consumption have been advanced in White Paper of European Union - " Energy for the future: Renewable sources of energy" (1997). The more significant part (74%) of renewable energy sources has been planned for Biomass energy. Latvia on its way to European Union have the same tasks of Bioenergy development as in White Paper of European Commission:" Biomass energy technologies have preference in rural areas for different reasons:Biomass is the main product in everyday agricultural production.Increasing productivity of food production create the land reserves for biomass, as energy source, production.Rural community has better understanding of environment protection problems and necessity to prevent Global Climate Change.Biomass technologies can create alternative jobs within and outside agriculture that is crucial to the health and sustainability of rural economy development.In the rural area open water systems (rivers and lakes) and wetlands also play an important role in the functioning of the agricultural ecosystem. For ages lake ecosystems have been acting as sinks for collecting organic and minerogenic matter (Bjork, 1988). At the same time soil cultivation in the catchment area of natural open water systems interacts with water flows. It has been stated that the intense land cultivation over the last 100 years has led to irreversible charge flows (matter loss, mainly alkaline metal cations) from agricultural soils by surface water flows. Matter losses from agricultural areas may amount to more than one ton per hectare a year (Ripl et al., 1994). Soil restitution by transport of matter opposite to water flow (sludge, sediments, and compost) is recommended.Leading to soil impoverishment and erosion, the organic residue removal from the fields must be limited. The biomass quantity whose removal has no significant impact on the carbon cycle varies from 20 to 50 %. Yearly production amount of cereal straw in Latvia in 1997 was 850907 tons If 20% from total amount could be used for energy production -171 0001 straw it is equal to heat capacity o f57 000 t of oil. More preferable are biomass usage technologies with minimal transport expenses:Development of mechanisation for technologies of straw and another plant material briquetting and pelleting..Constructed Reedbeds for Effluent Treatment is simplest and cheapest system for disposing of domestic sewage for rural situations. At the same time Reedbeds are the source of Biomass 20 -251per ha of dry matter annually.Composting heat plants' technologies. The heating energy, obtained in the biomass aerated composting process with temperature up to 50 X! can be used for different purposes where the low temperature heat is accepted.