Rural Non-farm Sector in Bangladesh: Stagnating and Residual, or Dynamic and Potential ?

Sen, Binayak

Rural Non-farm Sector in Bangladesh: Stagnating and Residual, or Dynamic and Potential ?

Bangladesh Development Studies, 1996, vol. 24, issue 3-4, 143-180

Abstract: The new piece of evidence culled from household expenditure surveys of BBS as well as 62-village panel surveys of BIDS indicates that the expansion of the rural non-farm sector (RNF) during the period since early eighties through mid-nineties can no longer be viewed as the persistence of a "residual" sector phenomenon. Such characterisation, if true, would have predicted declining output and higher incidence of poverty in this sector. The evidence presented in the paper suggests that the shift to non-farm occupations has been, on balance, pro-poor in nature. This is seen both in terms of greater potentials for poverty alleviation in these activities, and in respect of their potentials for moderating overall rural income inequality. The other view, favouring a "dynamic" characterisation, is also found to be wanting in that it fails to recognize the lack of improvement in labour productivity in many RNF activities— and the consequent overcrowding at the lower end of the productivity scale— affecting the long-term sustainability of the sector.

Keywords: Rural poverty; Crop income; Sustainable agriculture; Development studies; Livestock farms; Agroforestry; Trade; Labor productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1996
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:badest:0364

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