Income Diversification Patterns in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa : Reassessing the Evidence

Davis, Benjamin ; Di Giuseppe, Stefania ; Zezza, Alberto

World Bank Group, Washington, DC

关键词: AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES;    AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT;    AGRICULTURAL GROWTH;    AGRICULTURAL LAND;    AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7108
RP-ID  :  WPS7108

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Is Africa's rural economytransforming as its economies grow? This paper usescomparable income aggregates from 41 national householdsurveys from 22 countries to explore the extent of incomediversification among rural households in Sub-SaharanAfrica, and to look at how income diversification inSub-Saharan Africa compares with other regions, taking intoaccount differences in levels of development. The paper alsoseeks to understand how geography drives incomediversification, focusing on the role of agriculturalpotential and distance to urban areas. The countries in theAfrican sample have higher shares of on-farm income (63versus 33 percent) and lower shares on nonagricultural wageincome (8 and 21 percent) compared with countries of otherregions. Specialization in on-farm activities continues tobe the norm in rural Africa (52 percent of households, 21percent in other regions). In terms of welfare,specialization in nonagricultural income-generatingactivities stochastically dominates farm-based strategies inall of the countries in our African sample. Crop income isstill important for welfare, however, and even at higherlevels of household income, crop activities continue to playan important complementary role. Regardless of distance andintegration in the urban context, when agro-climaticconditions are favorable, farming remains the occupation ofchoice for most households in the African countries forwhich the study has geographically explicit information.When urban integration is low and agricultural conditionsmore difficult, the picture is mixed, with households morelikely to engage more fully in nonfarm activities in Nigerand Malawi, but less likely to do so in Uganda and Tanzania.