IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agrhuv/v24y2007i1p75-92.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nobody farms here anymore: Livelihood diversification in the Amazonian community of Carvão, a historical perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Angela Steward

Abstract

Over the past 15 years income sources in the Amazonian community of Carvão have diversified to include government salaries, retirement and welfare benefits, and wages from an evolving informal service sector. These non-farm incomes are now more important to household incomes than the sale of agricultural products. Out of 80 households only three families were found to depend almost entirely on the sale of agricultural goods for cash income. Agriculture is still a part of most families’ livelihoods; however, production today is mainly a subsistence activity. Recent changes in Carvão are consistent with trends of livelihood diversification observed in rural societies across the globe. However, current research reveals that Carvão is different from other case studies in a number of ways. A history of livelihoods illustrates that residents in Carvão have always engaged in a range of activities, including farming, extractive activities, and wage labor. New incomes are the result of new jobs in the public sector and social policies benefiting the rural poor. In contrast to the literature on livelihood diversification, the decentralization of the federal government in Brazil has resulted in greater opportunities for rural income and employment. Consistent with recorded trends, research shows that small farmers in Carvão have down-sized agricultural production. Farmers cite low market prices (the result of vertical integration of local markets) as one cause of this decline. Residents, especially small farmers, interested in diversifying agricultural production are limited by inadequate extension services and credit, and younger residents seek public sector employment. Income diversification has increased livelihoods security; however, future livelihoods will depend on new economic growth. Given the stagnating public sector and a weak industrial sector, production geared toward growing urban markets is a viable means for further income generation in Carvão. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2007

Suggested Citation

  • Angela Steward, 2007. "Nobody farms here anymore: Livelihood diversification in the Amazonian community of Carvão, a historical perspective," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 24(1), pages 75-92, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:24:y:2007:i:1:p:75-92
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-006-9032-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10460-006-9032-2
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10460-006-9032-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Graziano da Silva, Jose & Eduardo Del Grossi, Mauro, 2001. "Rural Nonfarm Employment and Incomes in Brazil: Patterns and Evolution," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 443-453, March.
    2. Bryceson, Deborah Fahy, 1996. "Deagrarianization and rural employment in sub-Saharan Africa: A sectoral perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 97-111, January.
    3. Frank Ellis, 1998. "Household strategies and rural livelihood diversification," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 1-38.
    4. Deborah Bryceson, 1999. "African rural labour, income diversification & livelihood approaches: a long‐term development perspective," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(80), pages 171-189.
    5. Rigg, Jonathan & Nattapoolwat, Sakunee, 2001. "Embracing the Global in Thailand: Activism and Pragmatism in an Era of Deagrarianization," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 945-960, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michaela Heřmanová & Kateřina Kuralová & Michal Prokop & Ladislav Pilař, 2024. "The Attractiveness of Employee Benefits in Agriculture from the Perspective of Generation Z," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-29, July.
    2. Joseph K. Assan & Pushpam Kumar, 2009. "Introduction: Livelihood options for the poor in the changing environment," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(3), pages 393-402.
    3. Minghui Ou & Yexi Zhong & Hongzhi Ma & Wenhui Wang & Manyu Bi, 2022. "Impacts of Policy-Driven Transformation in the Livelihoods of Fishermen on Agricultural Landscape Patterns: A Case Study of a Fishing Village, Island of Poyang Lake," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-16, August.
    4. Lincoln Addison & Matthew Schnurr, 2016. "Introduction to symposium on labor, gender and new sources of agrarian change," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(4), pages 961-965, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maria Mwaipopo Fibaek, 2021. "Working Poor? A Study of Rural Workers' Economic Welfare in Kenya," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 41-69, January.
    2. Riithi, Alexander Njuguna & Irungu, Patrick & Munei , Kimpei, 2015. "Determinants Of Choice Of Alternative Livelihood Diversification Strategies In Solio Resettlement Scheme, Kenya," Dissertations and Theses 269714, University of Nairobi, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    3. Gavin Hilson & Chris Garforth, 2012. "‘Agricultural Poverty’ and the Expansion of Artisanal Mining in Sub-Saharan Africa: Experiences from Southwest Mali and Southeast Ghana," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 31(3), pages 435-464, June.
    4. Schramski, Sam & Barnes, Grenville, 2016. "Agrarian Change and Adaptive Capacity in Rural South Africa," Review of Agrarian Studies, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, vol. 6(2), December.
    5. repec:dgr:rugcds:cds-27 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Quang Tran, Tuyen, 2012. "A review on the link between nonfarm activities, land and rural livelihoods in Vietnam and developing countries," MPRA Paper 55850, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 Nov 2013.
    7. Bezu, Sosina & Holden, Stein, 2014. "Are Rural Youth in Ethiopia Abandoning Agriculture?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 259-272.
    8. Ersado, Lire, 2003. "Income diversification in Zimbabwe," FCND discussion papers 152, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    9. Hilson, Gavin & Hilson, Abigail & Maconachie, Roy, 2018. "Opportunity or necessity? Conceptualizing entrepreneurship at African small-scale mines," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 286-302.
    10. Sadia Banchirigah & Gavin Hilson, 2010. "De-agrarianization, re-agrarianization and local economic development: Re-orientating livelihoods in African artisanal mining communities," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 43(2), pages 157-180, June.
    11. Bryceson, Deborah Fahy, 2002. "The Scramble in Africa: Reorienting Rural Livelihoods," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 725-739, May.
    12. Asfaw, Solomon & McCarthy, Nancy & Paolantonio, Adriana & Cavatassi, Romina & Amare, Mulubrhan & Lipper, Leslie, 2015. "Diversification, Climate Risk and Vulnerability to Poverty: Evidence from Rural Malawi," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 230216, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. Bryceson, Deborah Fahy, 2019. "Gender and generational patterns of African deagrarianization: Evolving labour and land allocation in smallholder peasant household farming, 1980–2015," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 60-72.
    14. Barrett, Christopher B. & Reardon, Thomas, 2000. "Asset, Activity, And Income Diversification Among African Agriculturalists: Some Practical Issues," Working Papers 14734, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    15. Joseph K. Assan & Pushpam Kumar, 2009. "Introduction: Livelihood options for the poor in the changing environment," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(3), pages 393-402.
    16. Forsyth, Tim & Evans, Natalie, 2013. "What is Autonomous Adaption? Resource Scarcity and Smallholder Agency in Thailand," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 56-66.
    17. Sosina Bezu & Christopher Barrett, 2012. "Employment Dynamics in the Rural Nonfarm Sector in Ethiopia: Do the Poor Have Time on Their Side?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(9), pages 1223-1240, September.
    18. Delali Dovie & E. Witkowski & Charlie Shackleton, 2005. "Monetary valuation of livelihoods for understanding the composition and complexity of rural households," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 22(1), pages 87-103, March.
    19. Soini, Eija, 2005. "Land use change patterns and livelihood dynamics on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 306-323, September.
    20. Koczberski, Gina & Curry, George N., 2005. "Making a living: Land pressures and changing livelihood strategies among oil palm settlers in Papua New Guinea," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 324-339, September.
    21. Dorward, Andrew & Fan, Shenggen & Kydd, Jonathan & Lofgren, Hans & Morrison, Jamie & Poulton, Colin & Rao, Neetha & Smith, Laurence & Tchale, Hardwick & Thorat, Sukhadeo & Urey, Ian & Wobst, Peter, 2004. "Institutions and economic policies for pro-poor agricultural growth," DSGD discussion papers 15, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:24:y:2007:i:1:p:75-92. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.