A policy of stimulating non-farm rural employment is important to relieve population pressure on mixed farming systems, and to create a market for mixed-farm smallholders to serve, as well as to make the livelihoods of rural households people more diverse and therefore more robust. The wider availability of non-farm rural employment (NFRE) can have the following positive effects:

• smoothing seasonal variations in on-farm labour demand and income
• reducing risk by spreading it across diverse activities
• raising income
• allowing investment in assets including livestock, livestock housing and farm implements
• providing options more remunerative than unsustainable expolitation of the environment
• increasing female income and therefore family welfare

• increased income inequality
• stagnation of farm output
• increased female workloads

• development of human capital through education and training
• streamlining of regulations that limit rural enterprise creation

• development of infrastructure
• development of credit and savings institutions

• the remoteness of the area
• population pressure
• the assets of rural people on which initiatives can build
• existing knowledge of livelihood strategies

Key References

Ellis, F. 1999. Rural Livelihood Diversity in Developing Countries: Evidence and Policy Implications. ODI Natural Resource Perspectives, No.40 http://www.odi.org.uk/nrp/40.html

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