IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fpr/fcndbr/82.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Pathways of rural development in Madagascar

Author

Listed:
  • Zeller, Manfred
  • Lapenu, Cécile
  • Minten, Bart
  • Ralison, Eliane
  • Randrianaivo, Désiré
  • Randrianarisoa, Claude

Abstract

This paper is based on community-level data from 188 villages in rural Madagascar. The survey that was conducted in 1997 made extensive use of long-term recall questions ascertaining changes during the past 10 years in rice yields, wages, population, soil fertility, and other pertinent variables of rural development. We find that—on average for all villages—the yields of irrigated rice, the major food crop, and real agricultural wages declined, while the communities expanded their upland area by nearly a quarter and experienced deteriorating fertility of their upland soils. These patterns are consistent with the wide-held belief that rural areas in Madagascar have witnessed increased poverty, economic stagnation, and a continued degradation of the natural resources. Yet, the five agroecological regions in our sample exhibit quite different patterns of rural development, and at least one of them has experienced increases in yields and wages. From a policy perspective, it is important to better understand the driving forces of such diverse rural change. The overall decline in rural wages over the past 10 years is expected to have contributed to increased poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition in rural areas, as rural wage laborers traditionally belong to the poorest of the poor in Madagascar. In this paper, we present an econometric analysis of the determinants of and interdependencies between the three components of sustainable development: economic growth, environmental sustainability, and poverty alleviation.

Suggested Citation

  • Zeller, Manfred & Lapenu, Cécile & Minten, Bart & Ralison, Eliane & Randrianaivo, Désiré & Randrianarisoa, Claude, 2000. "Pathways of rural development in Madagascar," FCND briefs 82, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:fpr:fcndbr:82
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/fcnbr82.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Scherr, Sara J. & Hazell, P. B. R., 1994. "Sustainable agricultural development strategies in fragile lands:," EPTD discussion papers 1, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Armar-Klemesu, Margaret & Ruel, Marie T. & Maxwell, Daniel G. & Levin, Carol E. & Morris, Saul Sutkover, 2000. "The constraints to good child care practices in Accra," FCND briefs 81, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Ruel, Marie T. & Armar-Klemesu, Margaret & Arimond, Mary, 2001. "A multiple-method approach to studying childcare in an urban environment," FCND discussion papers 116, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Barbier, Bruno & Bergeron, Gilles, 2001. "Natural resource management in the hillsides of Honduras: bioeconomic modeling at the micro-watershed level," Research reports 123, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Scherr, Sara J., 1995. "Economic factors in farmer adoption of agroforestry: Patterns observed in Western Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 787-804, May.
    4. Tisdell, Clement A., 1998. "Asia's Livestock Industries: Changes and Environmental Consequences," Economics, Ecology and Environment Working Papers 54347, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    5. Jonathan Newby & Rob Cramb & Somphanh Sakanphet, 2014. "Forest Transitions and Rural Livelihoods: Multiple Pathways of Smallholder Teak Expansion in Northern Laos," Land, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-22, June.
    6. Shuhan Liu & Dongyan Wang & Hong Li & Wenbo Li & Qing Wang, 2017. "Ecological Land Fragmentation Evaluation and Dynamic Change of a Typical Black Soil Farming Area in Northeast China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-21, February.
    7. Templeton, Scott R. & Scherr, Sara J., 1997. "Population pressure and the microeconomy of land management in hills and mountains of developing countries:," EPTD discussion papers 26, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. Garrett, James, 2004. "Living life," FCND discussion papers 171, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    9. Pender, John & Nkonya, Ephraim & Jagger, Pamela & Sserunkuuma, Dick & Ssali, Henry, 2004. "Strategies to increase agricultural productivity and reduce land degradation: evidence from Uganda," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 31(2-3), pages 181-195, December.
    10. Pender, John L. & Jagger, Pamela & Nkonya, Ephraim M. & Sserunkuuma, Dick, 2001. "Development pathways and land management in Uganda: causes and implications," EPTD discussion papers 85, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    11. Chamberlin, Jordan & Pender, John & Yu, Bingxin, 2006. "Development domains for Ethiopia: capturing the geographical context of smallholder development options," EPTD discussion papers 159, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. Fan, Shenngen & Hazell, Peter & Haque, T., 2000. "Targeting public investments by agro-ecological zone to achieve growth and poverty alleviation goals in rural India," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 411-428, August.
    13. Babatunde, Raphael O. & Qaim, Matin, 2009. "Impact of off-farm income on food security and nutrition in Nigeria," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Frankfurt a.M. 2009 27, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    14. Nkonya, Ephraim & Place, Frank & Pender, John & Mwanjololo, Majaliwa & Okhimamhe, Appollonia & Kato, Edward & Crespo, Susana & Ndjeunga, Jupiter & Traore, Sibiry, 2011. "Climate risk management through sustainable land management in Sub-Saharan Africa:," IFPRI discussion papers 1126, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    15. Ruel, Marie T. & Haddad, Lawrence James & Garrett, James L., 1999. "Some urban facts of life," FCND discussion papers 64, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    16. Babatunde, Raphael O. & Qaim, Matin, 2010. "Impact of off-farm income on food security and nutrition in Nigeria," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 303-311, August.
    17. Pender, John L., 1998. "Population growth, agricultural intensification, induced innovation and natural resource sustainability: An application of neoclassical growth theory," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 19(1-2), pages 99-112, September.
    18. Nkegbe, Paul K. & Shankar, Bhavani & Ceddia, M. Graziano, 2011. "Smallholder Adoption of Soil and Water Conservation Practices in Northern Ghana," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 114608, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Martey, Edward & Kuwornu, John K.M., 2021. "Perceptions of Climate Variability and Soil Fertility Management Choices Among Smallholder Farmers in Northern Ghana," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    20. Ruel, Marie T. & Menon, Purnima, 2002. "Creating a child feeding index using the demographic and health surveys," FCND briefs 130, 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:fpr:fcndbr:82. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifprius.html .

    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.