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Beyond moving out: Rural poverty
dynamics in Nepal
Ramesh Sunam 04 November 2013
Research motivation
“Livelihoods have become de-linked from farming; poverty
and inequality from land ownership; and poverty and
inequality from occupation and activity”
(Rigg 2006, p.198)
World Development Report 2008:
Agriculture for Development by World
Bank
Repeasantisation or the death of peasantries?
The question of food security – a burning issue
Contextual motivation – why Nepal?
Economic growth around 4%
Political upheavals
Still poverty reduction?
Poverty dynamics – social exclusion and
adverse incorporation
What contributed to poverty
reduction?
Accounting for Simultaneity
Source: Krishna, A. (2010)
Moving out Falling
Research questions
How is poverty (re)produced and reduced in the rural Tarai of
Nepal?
• To what extent have rural households moved out and moved into
poverty?
• What factors rural people consider in explaining their mobility?
• How glocal processes influence diversification, marginalisation,
and commoditisation of land and labour, having profound
ramifications for poverty?
Methodology
“Stages of progress” methodology – developed by Krishna (2010)
Fieldwork– 50 interviews, 170 surveys
Study site
“Stages of progress” methodology – for poverty dynamics
Stages of progress
1 Food for the family
2 Some clothes for family while going to towns or
social functions
3 Sending children to school
4 Repairing the existing shelter (roof with iron
sheets)
5 Covering basic medical expenses Poverty cut-off
Escaped poverty = Migration + Farming
Remained poor = Landless, Labourers
Proposition 1: Factors leading to poverty are quite different from that lifting
households out of poverty.
Reasons for escape % of poverty
escaping HHs
Foreign labour migration 60
Own
farming/sharecropping
22/42
Small business 41
Government job 21
Private job including
labouring
25
“…consigns the rural poor to continuing penury” (Rigg 2006, p.
195).
Outmigration – labour migration
Source: ADS 2013
How about those who cannot migrate?
Falling into poverty
Reasons for descent % of HHs falling into
poverty
Poor health and health
related expenses
19
Cultural costs
(marriage, dowry,
death rituals)
48
Land loss 62
Proposition 2: While non-farm economy including outmigration led to
upward mobility, the ultra-poor heavily rely on land-based livelihoods
The landless
Labouring – farm and off-farm
Access to market
opportunities/private jobs –
unreachable
Proposition 3: While individual conditions have lifted people out of poverty but
structural factors (land, social structure; integration into local/global economy)
explain immiseration and intergenerational poverty
The question of relational poverty
Social exclusion
Adverse incorporation
These all give importance to land reform –
access to land
Conclusion
Understanding poverty from the lived experience of the poor
Falling into poverty – little explored dimension but critical
“Lives and livelihoods in the Rural South are becoming increasingly
divorced from farming and, therefore, from the land”
(Rigg 2006, p.180)
“The state support…helped to lift the peasantry out of poverty and
consolidate its middle-income position”
(Walker 2012, p.36)
Access to land - tenancy reforms – terms and conditions
Informal economy – working conditions – wages
…turn their rural citizens from
landowners into landless
labourers?
THANK YOU