This paper investigates whether this increase in the opportunity cost of agricultural labor incentivizes farm owners to adopt labor-saving agricultural technology. Using a regression discontinuity design and new Indian agricultural census data, this paper finds that NREGA causes a shift of roughly 20 percentage points away from labor-intensive technologies toward labor-saving ones, particularly for small farmers and low-powered technologies.

Training materials

Poultry production is an important livelihoods activity in the rural areas of many developing countries. Several studies from African and Asian countries have found that poultry production significantly contributes to several livelihoods indicators of rural households, such as income, food and nutrition security, and intra-household gender equality.

This report has very focused objectives. It seeks to present the methodology and results of the poverty analysis of the 2002-03 IAF as well as comparisons with the 1996-97 survey results. The results point to a substantially improved poverty picture relative to 1996-97. The national poverty headcount, defined as the share of the population living in poverty, declines to 54 percent, a 15 percentage point decline from the levels registered in 1996-97.

The variety of views about ICTs reveals that their role in development is unclear, especially without convincing evidence of their impact—and little research has been conducted on the direct and indirect links between ICTs and poverty reduction. This book, addresses several pressing questions surrounding ICTs. How do ICTs affect economic development in low-income countries? How do they affect poor people in these countries and in rural areas in particular? What policies and programs facilitate their potential to enhance development and the inclusion of poor constituents?

Kenyan farmers’ livelihoods are closely linked to climate conditions. Almost three-quarters of the labor force depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, and almost all farmers depend on timely and adequate rainfall for crop production and husbandry, as only 2 percent of cultivated area is equipped for irrigation. Thus, climate variability and change will have an increasing impact on agricultural livelihoods and food security in the country, making adaptation essential for rural areas in Kenya.

Developing countries allocate scarce government funds to investments in rural areas to achieve the twin goals of agricultural growth and poverty alleviation. Choices have to be made between different types of investments, especially infrastructure, human capital and agricultural research, and between different types of agricultural regions, e.g., irrigated and high- and low-potential rainfed areas. This paper develops an econometric approach and provides empirical evidence on the impact of government investments in rural India using district-level data.

Project Note

This policy note summarizes research exploring the challenges and opportunities associated with building human, organizational, and institutional capacity to respond effectively to the adverse impacts of climate change as they relate to agriculture and rural livelihoods in developing countries.

This policy note summarizes research that explored the perceptions of agricultural households in rural Bangladesh about climate change and their choices of coping mechanisms and adaptation strategies.

Because many rural poor live in areas far away from markets, we investigate whether better road access could help improve their livelihood and reduce rural poverty. We use three waves of a primary panel survey at the household level conducted in 18 remote natural villages in China to study how road access shapes farmers’ agricultural production patterns and input uses and affects rural poverty. Our results show that access to roads is strongly associated with specialization in agricultural production.

This policy note summarizes research that analyzed the adverse impact of climate-related shocks on farm households’ real per capita consumption and asset ownership over time, as well as factors that exacerbate or ameliorate those adverse impacts.