Beyond Agriculture: Transcending sectors for diversified livelihoods.

Andrew Noble, Director WLE.

We are living in a globally connected world dominated by megatrends.

Global Economic Rebalancing• Emerging economies and growing

middle class – led by China and India – will drive global growth and create new markets.

• Mass industrialization and urbanization highlight existing pressures on the world’s natural capital.

Environment and Resource• Climate change enhances

vulnerability to climatic events.• Deforestation continues, leading to

ecosystem decline and habitat and species loss.

• Demand for resource needs expose constraints in water, energy, waste management, food and extraction systems, and prompt new resource markets.

Growing Pains• Ageing populations, rising health

costs and shifting values.• Growing cities, resource constraints

and diverse communities.• Structural change, decline in full-

time manual male work.• Growing inequity between the

‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ – no longer an issue between the north and south.

Case studies

• Two case studies to show different types of problems and complexities.

• One with organic change.

• One with an assisted intervention to improve the resilience of system.

Case 1: The quiet revolution: Moving beyond the farm gate.

On-Farm Employment Profile of Families

Full time Part time Not On-Farm

Pe

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e (

%)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

IFS CFS

• A study 2010 undertaken in Northeast Thailand of integrated farming systems (IFS) and commercial rice growers (CFS).

• Total number of family members in each of the IFS and CFS groups were 579 and 485.

• Higher percentage of family members that were either part-time farmers or not employed on-farm.

Declining productivity and a shift in cropping patterns = lower on-farm incomes.

Higher costs of production = excessive borrowing and high level on non performing loans.

Dependence on off-farm employment i.e. migration to Bangkok Can have negative impacts on family and social structures.

Aspirations of youth beyond the farm gate.

Case 1: The quiet revolution: Moving beyond the farm gate.

Case Study 2: Innovation platforms in the Zimbabwe

Photo by Swathi Sridharan

This case is abstracted from ten years of work done by ICRISAT in Southern Africa and which has been supported by CPWF the last three years.

The challenge to diversity livelihoods in the semi-arid regions of Southern Zimbabwe

• Introduction of improved management of livestock proved difficult because there was a lack of incentives to change.

• Markets were segmented, little coordination, and poor understanding of value.

• Unhealthy animals, poor prices, and communities that were food insecure.

Photo by Swathi Sridharan

The solution.

• Innovation platforms established to improve market efficiency and reduce transaction costs along the entire value chain.

Photo by Swathi Sridharan

The outcome• Platform has raised value

of goat from 10$ to 60$• Farmers are readily

adopting previously un-used technology to produce goats now.

• Farmers have options other than staple crops such as maize and cassava which have poor yields and prices. Photo by Swathi

Sridharan

Conclusions

• Livelihoods within rural communities are not static and are undergoing a quiet revolution in diversification.

• Old push-side solutions are not viable– Thailand: Labour, migration driving

agriculture, old solutions do not apply.– Zimbabwe: Farmers only adopt when context

taken into account.

Conclusions

• If we are looking to sustainable solutions to the ‘wicked’ problem livelihoods and poverty alleviation there is a need to:– Each actor holds a key to the solution.– There is a need to engage each actor.– Finding the right ‘lever’ is the key to getting

collective action.

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