What we do

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The RIGA project created an internationally comparable database of rural household income sources from existing household surveys. The main sources of information are the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys of the World Bank (see complete list of household surveys used). We plan to have microdata available to the general public, for those countries with surveys publicly available from the World Bank, by the end of 2008.

In its first phase the project focused on creating household level variables. This work is now being expanded to also add individual level variables to the dataset, focusing in particular on those related to rural wage employment.

At the same time, a number of empirical studies based on the RIGA database are under way. These studies aim at enhancing our understanding of the rural non-farm economy, and its relations and synergies with agriculture. The goal is to help promote and implement effective public policies and rural development strategies that include the non-farm economy as an important component.

Studies have been completed or are underway in the following domains:

• Access to assets, activities and sources of income in rural areas;
  
  
• Access to agricultural input and output markets by rural households;
  
  
• The linkages between agriculture and non-farm activities;
  
  
• A cross-country analysis of broad rural development patterns;
  
  
• The household level impact of high food prices;
  
  
• Rural wage employment, with a particular focus on its gender dimensions;
  
  
• Urban agriculture.

As they become available papers and publications are being posted on our website (see the Publications page). Please also visit the FAO Agricultural Development Economics Division’s publications page for these and additional publications.

The RIGA project has contributed data and analytical inputs to a number of activities within FAO, as well as to the World Bank’s 2008 World Development Report on Agriculture for Development, and the forthcoming IFAD Rural Poverty Report 2009. Joint work with WFP and the OECD is also underway.