Rural–urban migration, agrarian change, and the environment in Kenya: a critical review of the literature

Greiner, Clemens; Sakdapolrak, Patrick

doi:10.1007/s11111-012-0178-0

Cited by 95 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…Our framing needs to be understood as contributing to the interdisciplinary analysis of global change that links major trends, such as migration, urbanization, and commodity trade, with the environment [212][213][214]. Finally, our framing engages and contributes to growing interdisciplinary research on migration-dependent livelihoods and the environment [215,216]. Here our intent is also to offer explicit re-framing that integrates multiple ecological components rather than treating the environment as a simple, single sub-system.…”

Section: Discussion: Hypothesizing Pathways and The Spatial-geographimentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward the Integrated Framework Analysis of Linkages among Agrobiodiversity, Livelihood Diversification, Ecological Systems, and Sustainability amid Global Change

Zimmerer

Vanek

2016

Land

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Scientific and policy interest in the biological diversity of agriculture (agrobiodiversity) is expanding amid global socioeconomic and environmental changes and sustainability interests. The majority of global agrobiodiversity is produced in smallholder food-growing. We use meta-analyses in an integrated framework to examine the interactions of smallholder agrobiodiversity with: (1) livelihood processes, especially migration, including impacts on agrobiodiversity as well as the interconnected resource systems of soil, water, and uncultivated habitats; and (2) plant-soil ecological systems. We hypothesize these interactions depend on: (1) scope of livelihood diversification and type resource system; and (2) plant residues and above-/belowground component ecological specificity. Findings show: (1) livelihood diversification is linked to varied environmental factors that range from rampant degradation to enhancing sustainability; and (2) significant ecological coupling of aboveground and soil agrobiodiversity (AGSOBIO assemblages). The environmental impacts of livelihood interactions correspond to variation of diversification (migration, on-farm diversification) and resource system (i.e., agrobiodiversity per se, soil, water). Our findings also reveal mutually dependent interactions of aboveground and soil agrobiodiversity. Results identify livelihood diversification-induced reduction of environmental resource quality with lagged agrobiodiversity declines as a potentially major avenue of global change. Our contribution re-frames livelihood interactions to include both agrobiodiversity and ecological systems. We discuss this integrated social-environmental re-framing through the proposed spatial geographic schema of regional agri-food spaces with distinctive matrices of livelihood strategies and relations to biodiversity and resources. This re-framing can be used to integrate livelihood, agrobiodiversity, and ecological analysis and to guide policy and scientific approaches for sustainability in agriculture and food-growing.

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Section: Discussion: Hypothesizing Pathways and The Spatial-geographimentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward the Integrated Framework Analysis of Linkages among Agrobiodiversity, Livelihood Diversification, Ecological Systems, and Sustainability amid Global Change

Zimmerer

Vanek

2016

Land

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“…The outcome is often a transfer from intensive cultivation for food towards lower value pasture and livestock or, in more extreme cases, the removal of land from agriculture altogether (Zimmerer, ; Rudel et al ., ). All of this has raised questions about how land use change that arises out of temporary migration might contribute to wider ecological changes, including land degradation and/or reforestation (Jokisch, ; Gray, ; Griener & Sakdapolrak, ).…”

Section: Temporary Migration Remittances and Agrarian Changementioning

confidence: 99%

The Impacts of Temporary Labour Migration on Farming Systems of the Loess Plateau, Gansu Province, China

Tonts

2013

Population Space and Place

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Across much of rural China, members of farm households spend parts of the year working in cities to generate additional income. This process of temporary labour migration has gathered pace in recent years as rural households capitalise on China's economic expansion and look to improve their own levels of well-being. Yet, to date, relatively little research has examined the impacts of temporary migration on the structure and performance of farming systems. Accordingly, this paper examines the ways in which temporary migration has resulted in significant changes to the nature of farming on the Loess Plateau in Gansu Province. It draws primarily on a survey of 175 households in three different agroclimatic zones. The analysis indicates that temporary migration is associated with quite complex changes in land use, agricultural production and farm enterprise productivity. Although households involved in temporary migration tend to have higher incomes than non-migration households, this appears to be at the expense of farm productivity. Indeed, higher levels of migration are closely associated with more extensive, low labour farming practices, suggesting a tendency towards disinvestment in agricultural enterprise.

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“…This case study calls into question simple and deterministic statements about the relationship between environmental factors and migration, while enabling -in comparison with other case studiesnuanced statements about the nature of these relationships. Finally, the presented results point to the need to consider migration and the translocal connectedness induced by it as a source for social resilience building in the context of climate change (Greiner & Sakdapolrak, 2013). This is an issue which has been widely neglected by climate change adaptation researchers and policy makers.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 87%

Why successfulin situadaptation with environmental stress does not prevent people from migrating? Empirical evidence from Northern Thailand

Sakdapolrak

Promburom

Reif

2013

Climate and Development

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This article examines the relationship between rainfall-related events and trends, livelihood and food security and migration in rural upland communities in Thailand. This study was conducted as one of eight case studies within the framework of the 'Where the Rain Falls' Project. This article is based on empirical research in four villages in the Province Lamphun, Northern Thailand. The households' livelihood in the research area is characterized by a high level of on and off-farm diversification and integration into national and global market structures. Migration -internal as well as international -is widespread. Based on the data gathered in a multi-method field-based research design, the study observed that while households are exposed to various rainfall related stressors, such as the extreme rainfall in 2011 which resulted in heavy floods in the Central Plains of Thailand, migration is not considered as a primary coping and risk mitigation strategy. Environmental factors are furthermore not the primary explanatory factor for pattern of mobility. The study highlights the complex relationship between environmental factors including rainfall and migration beyond determinism notions of environmental migration. This study points out that while migration might not be caused by rainfall-related events and trends, through migration induced translocal connectedness, the social resilience of exposed households and communities can be strengthened.

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Rural–urban migration, agrarian change, and the environment in Kenya: a critical review of the literature

Cited by 95 publications

References 82 publications

Toward the Integrated Framework Analysis of Linkages among Agrobiodiversity, Livelihood Diversification, Ecological Systems, and Sustainability amid Global Change

Toward the Integrated Framework Analysis of Linkages among Agrobiodiversity, Livelihood Diversification, Ecological Systems, and Sustainability amid Global Change

The Impacts of Temporary Labour Migration on Farming Systems of the Loess Plateau, Gansu Province, China

Why successfulin situadaptation with environmental stress does not prevent people from migrating? Empirical evidence from Northern Thailand

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