How Special Are Rural Areas? The Economic Implications of Location for Rural Development

2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Wiggins ◽  
Sharon Proctor
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-44
Author(s):  
Irina Bancescu

Rural areas in Romania are underdeveloped, with the main economic activity being agriculture. Urban-rural income gap and poverty levels are indicative of an underdeveloped rural area. Urban-rural absolute income gap for average monthly income increased from 352 RON in 2007 to 663 RON in 2017. Moreover, the work poverty rate is higher in rural areas than in urban areas. Economic rural development can be achieved by improvements of the labour market and introduction of new value-added products. Agricultural and non-agricultural activities are dependent on each other for a successful rural development leading to poverty alleviation. An industry that combines the two types of economic activities is agriculture biomaterial industry. In this paper, the authos investigates the factors influencing rural poverty and analyses the current stage of the bioplastics market in Romania and its economic implications. Bioplastics industry can reduce urban-rural income gaps and poverty in rural areas.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 350
Author(s):  
Taufik Raharjo ◽  
Ambang Aries Yudanto ◽  
I Gede Agus Ariutama

As the Indonesian government has been committed, that the national development should be puting more focus from the outer-ring or rural areas. One of the instrument to boost the rural development is Village Fund. This decentralization transfer purposively targets to improve the village society’s welfare and alleviate social gap existed among societies. Village-owned enterprise (Badan Usaha Milik Desa or BUMDes) is provided as one of the strategic mechanism to create the welfare by proactively engage the community itsefl. In fact, BUMDes may incorporate Village Fund as capital alternative to support their establishment. This paper highlights the crucial factors in order to establish a village-owned enterprise (BUMDes) in case of Cibogo Village, Cisauk Sub-regency, Tangerang Regency. The study deploys a qualitative approach. To collect the data, we are scouting, interviewing and establishing Focused-Group Discussion that involving the possible parties which may contributes in creating BUMDes. The result has not yet concluded as the process of the research still going on. We predicts that the communities engagement, empowerment and also government support should be taken into account in the early process of establishing BUMDes. Eventually, proactive society’s control and participatory would be decent factors to support the operations of BUMDes itself.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinod N. Sambrani

India is a country which is in forefront of being called a developed nation. To be a developed nation, India has to first look at its rural development, because 70 percent of the population live in rural areas, which means more than 700 million people are spread across 6,27,000 villages. Rural development is more than ever before linked to entrepreneurship. Establishments and agencies promoting rural development now look at entrepreneurship as a strategic development medium that could speed up the rural development process. Development institutions believe that rural entrepreneurship offers a huge potential for employment. In this paper a case study of a young entrepreneur who has taken up horticulture (vegetable plants nursery) as his full time profession, with a mission to help the neighbouring farmers is studied, the purpose of this paper is to understand the government role (policies and schemes), the difficulties faced by the entrepreneur during the startup time and knowledge transfer from the horticulture department, nursery management. The methodology followed is in-depth interaction with the entrepreneur. The outcome of paper will be to understand how rural entrepreneurship is helping improve the quality of life for families, communities and individuals leading to sustainable economy and environment.


Author(s):  
Jun Zhang ◽  
Xiaodie Yuan ◽  
Xueping Tan ◽  
Xue Zhang

As one of the most important methods for limiting urban sprawl, the accurate delineation of the urban–rural boundary not only promotes the intensive use of urban resources, but also helps to alleviate the urban issues caused by urban sprawl, realizing the intensive and healthy development of urban cities. Previous studies on delineating urban–rural boundaries were only based on the level of urban and rural development reflected by night-time light (NTL) data, ignoring the differences in the spatial development between urban and rural areas; so, the comprehensive consideration of NTL and point of interest (POI) data can help improve the accuracy of urban–rural boundary delineation. In this study, the NTL and POI data were fused using wavelet transform, and then the urban–rural boundary before and after data fusion was delineated by multiresolution segmentation. Finally, the delineation results were verified. The verification result shows that the accuracy of delineating the urban–rural boundary using only NTL data is 84.20%, and the Kappa value is 0.6549; the accuracy using the fusion of NTL and POI data on the basis of wavelet transform is 93.2%, and the Kappa value is 0.8132. Therefore, we concluded that the proposed method of using wavelet transform to fuse NTL and POI data considers the differences between urban and rural development, which significantly improves the accuracy of the delineation of urban–rural boundaries. Accurate delineation of urban–rural boundaries is helpful for optimizing internal spatial structure in both urban and rural areas, alleviating environmental problems resulting from urban development, assisting the formulation of development policies for urban and rural fringes, and promoting the intensive and healthy development of urban areas.


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 253
Author(s):  
Mirosław Biczkowski ◽  
Aleksandra Jezierska-Thöle ◽  
Roman Rudnicki

The paper’s main aim is to assess the measures implemented within the Rural Development Program (RDP) 2007–2013 in Poland. This programme is dedicated to the diversification of business activities in rural areas and rural livelihood and, thus, the improvement of the multifunctionality of rural areas. The analysis covered two measures from Axis 3, Improvement of the quality of life in rural areas and diversification of rural economy: M311, diversification into non-agricultural activities; and M312, Establishment and development of micro-enterprise. The study and the discussion are presented from a geographical perspective and, in a broader context, take into account several conditions (natural, urban, agricultural and historical) and the spatial diversity of the allocation of European Union (EU) funds. Models of a policy of multifunctional rural development, implemented after accession to the EU, are presented. The research’s spatial scope covers Poland’s territory on two spatial scales: the system of regions (16 NUTS2 units) and poviats (314 LAU level 1 units). The analysis covers all the projects implemented in Poland under the two measures of Axis 3 of the RDP 2007–2013. A set of conditions was prepared for all LAU1 units, forming the background for assessing the impact of the EU funds on the development of non-agricultural activities. To determine the relationship between the RDP measures and the selected groups of conditions, a synthetic index and a correlation index are used. They are also used to determine the mutual relations between the two analyzed activities in terms of the spatial scales used. Access to the EU funds (RDP) has considerably enlarged the opportunities for accelerating agricultural modernisation and restructuration towards multifunctional development, as well as the opportunities for implementing new development and work methods in the countryside in Poland. The attractiveness of the two studied RDP measures varied across regions. The beneficiaries’ activity depended on the local potential (resources), culture and tradition of the region, and size and potential of the farm. In the areas where agriculture is deeply rooted, beneficiaries were more willing to engage in ventures tapping into the resources available in their farms. Thus, they create additional livelihood of income and workplaces for household members. In turn, the beneficiaries from the areas where farms are smaller and economically weaker often undertake activities related to setting up a new business (outside farming).


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Synowiec

The objective of this study is to identify the current state of, and the prospects for, information and communication technologies (ICT) dissemination in rural areas in Ukraine in juxtaposition with other post-transition countries. The spread of ICT is discussed within the frame of economic, infrastructural, and social factors affecting rural areas in Ukraine since the post-communist transition period. Information and communication technologies may support the socio-economic development of peripheral areas in many ways—including rural ones. Dissemination of ICT contributes to the emergence of sources of income, equalizes education opportunities, and increases the attractiveness of rural areas. However, the rural—urban divide in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and other former USSR countries is still remarkable and, as a type of structural inequality, should be better recognized. The source material is based on secondary data, which consists of selected literature on the subject of rural development in Central and Eastern European Countries, strategic documents, available reports and studies of international institutions, research from agencies, state documents and statistics, and research conducted by international and domestic NGOs. In reference to the paper’s objective, the method of content analysis was employed. Dissemination of ICT in rural areas in Ukraine is influenced by two groups of factors. The infrastructural divide concerning Internet access between rural and urban populations in Ukraine has been diminishing, but the issue of structural exclusion due to place of residence has still not been solved. As far as the social aspects of ICT dissemination in rural areas in Ukraine are concerned, the level of digital literacy among rural dwellers is significantly lower in comparison to urban residents. Rural areas are more exposed to the consequences of various aspects of digital exclusion.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 514
Author(s):  
Hongzhang Xu ◽  
Jamie Pittock ◽  
Katherine A. Daniell

The adverse effects of rapid urbanization are of global concern. Careful planning for and accommodation of accelerating urbanization and citizenization (i.e., migrants gaining official urban residency) may be the best approach to limit some of the worst impacts. However, we find that another trajectory may be possible: one linked to the rural development plan adopted in the latest Chinese national development strategy. This plan aims to build rural areas as attractive areas for settlement by 2050 rather than to further urbanize with more people in cities. We assess the political motivations and challenges behind this choice to develop rural areas based on a literature review and empirical case analysis. After assessing the rural and urban policy subsystem, we find five socio-political drivers behind China’s rural development strategy, namely ensuring food security, promoting culture and heritage, addressing overcapacity, emphasizing environmental protection and eradicating poverty. To develop rural areas, China needs to effectively resolve three dilemmas: (1) implementing decentralized policies under central supervision; (2) deploying limited resources efficiently to achieve targets; and (3) addressing competing narratives in current policies. Involving more rural community voices, adopting multiple forms of local governance, and identifying and mitigating negative project impacts can be the starting points to manage these dilemmas.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 321
Author(s):  
Valentyna ARANCHIY ◽  
Oleksii ZORIA ◽  
Ilona YASNOLOB ◽  
Svitlana ZORYA ◽  
Oleg GORB ◽  
...  

Theoretical, methodological, scientific, methodical and applied principles of managing environmentally and socially oriented investments in sustainable development of rural areas have been developed and substantiated in the article. The model of investment process of ecologically and socially oriented economy has been developed. The analysis of corresponding existing models of investment process enabled to specify the management model, which corresponds to the environmentally and socially oriented economics. The block scheme of the system of analyzing and evaluating the efficiency of investment processes of sustainable rural development has been made. The determined methodological provisions and specified concepts enabled to ground the system of complex analyzing and assessing the effectiveness of investment processes in sustainable development of rural areas, including the evaluation of economic, social and environmental efficiency of investment projects. The mechanism of sustainable rural development, comprising consolidated elements and connections, has been grounded. The ecological aspects of investment policy as a component of the economic mechanism of sustainable rural development have been systematized. It has been determined that attracting investments in environmentally and socially oriented investment projects and programs has to be based on strengthening the ecological aspects of investment policy as part of stimulating sub-system of the economic mechanism of sustainable rural development.


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