Seasonality of peasant and rural economies in rural Bangladesh: A comparison of developed and less developed villages in Comilla
1992
Usami, K. (Kyoto Univ. (Japan). Coll. of Agriculture)
This study focuses on the seasonal distress of individual household and rural economies deriving from farming use (cropping pattern and its combination) and labor (employment and its location) in rural Bangladesh. This linkage of farming and nonfarming taking into account the locality, were examined through farm income level, income pattern and extent of distress. By comparing developed village with less developed village, farming before irrigation installation structured the linkage of rural economy to nonfarming sectors by different patterns. The better access to local labor markets has enabled to form an elastic/dynamic rural economy and has changed the nature of land tenancy holding. Otherwise, farming was still stagnant and lay susceptible to hired agricultural labor competing with neighboring villages. Diversification of farming without any external capital, that is being from nonfarming sector, showed the limitation to alleviating a seasonal distress of peasant economy. The improvement of local markets, furthermore, was crucial to the existence of better strata which could support farming within village in harmony with encouraging intensification of farming under the scarce farmland and agricultural labor. The frequency of distress was reduced almost by nonfarming activities rather than farming
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