Micro insights on the pathways to agricultural transformation: Comparative evidence from Southeast Asia and Sub‐Saharan Africa

Abstract

Most studies of agricultural transformation document the impact of agricultural income growth on macroeconomic indicators of development. Much less is known about the micro-scale changes within the farming sector that signal a transformation precipitated by agricultural income growth. This study provides a comparative analysis of the patterns of micro-level changes that occur among small-holder farmers in Uganda and Malawi in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and Thailand and Vietnam in Southeast Asia (SEA). Our analysis provides several important insights on agricultural transformation in these two regions. First, agricultural income in all examined countries is vulnerable to changes in precipitation and temperature, an effect that is nonlinear and asymmetric. SSA countries are more vulnerable to these weather changes. Second, exogenous increases in agricultural income in previous years improve non-farm income and trigger a change in labor allocation within the rural sector in SEA. However, this is the opposite in SSA where the increase in agricultural income reduces nonfarm income, indicating a substitution effect between farm and non-farm sectors.These findings reveal clear agricultural transformation driven by agricultural income in SEA but no similar evidence in SSA. K E Y W O R D Sagricultural transformation, small-holder farmers, Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa RésuméLa plupart des études sur la transformation agricole documentent l'impact de la croissance des revenus agricoles sur les indicateurs macroéconomiques de développement. On en sait beaucoup moins sur les changements à petite échelle au sein du secteur agricole qui signalent une transformation précipitée par la croissance des revenus agricoles. Cette étude fournit une analyse comparative des modéles de micro-changements qui se produisent chez les petitsThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Agricultural commercialisation, asset growth and poverty in rural Vietnam

“…Figure 2 summarises how commercialisation might affect poverty in rural Vietnam. When households place more emphasis on their agricultural production, they can use some of the output to stabilise their food supply, which has a direct effect on the multidimensional poverty in terms of fewer malnourished household members (Amare et al, 2023; Carletto et al, 2017; Zhou et al, 2013). The findings from previous sections agree to some extent with this hypothesis, as most RCI and CI households were less frequently deprived in the health dimension.…”

Internet use and agricultural productivity in rural Vietnam

“…According to the World Bank (2022), 62% population lived in rural areas in 2019 and 37% population worked in the agricultural sector. In recent decades, Vietnam has also achieved explosive growth in agricultural production, transforming itself from a once starving country into one of the main exporters of various crops such as rice, cassava, sweet potatoes (Amare et al, 2023). However, agricultural productivity is still low and agricultural production suffers from numerous challenges such as climate change, water scarcity, and soil degradation (FAO, 2014).…”

Extreme weather and agricultural management decisions among smallholder farmers in rural Thailand and Vietnam

“…As recently suggested by Amare et al (2023), agricultural income is a driver of non-farm income and labor allocation in these rural areas of Thailand and Vietnam, yet increasingly vulnerable to adverse weather events related to climate change (World Bank, 2020. In order to support farmers to cope with these events, our analysis suggests several entry points for policymakers.…”