Many of the rural poor are family farmers, subsistence producers, or landless agricultural workers. They include fisherfolk, pastoralists, and forest-dependent peoples with limited access to productive means.

Rural families increasingly depend on non-farm incomes. When infrastructure or basic services are lacking, credit is difficult to get and institutions are weak, small rural enterprises and earners of non-farm wages are the hardest hit.

Without social protection, the poor are the most vulnerable especially those with disabilities and the elderly. Rural women and members of female-headed households also struggle to maintain substantive livelihoods as they tend to face discrimination in accessing productive resources, such as land, extension services, such as technical training, and markets.