2. Review of research findings: India, Mozambique and Mexico

Field research was carried out in four villages in Gujarat India, four villages in four different provinces of Mozambique, and three villages in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, Mexico. The village selection criteria were the same for each country⁷. The research methodology and information needs developed by SDAR/FAO were adapted as necessary by the local research teams, and the results of the research were presented in village level reports, final reports and at a Global Technical Consultation held in Rome in May 1999.

Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to gather information and insights about village livelihoods, local institutions and their interactions over time (e.g. before and after an economic shock). In brief, each research team conducted a Community Participatory Appraisal in each study village, living within the village for at least one week, followed by detailed household interviews with a random stratified sample of households, institutional profiles with leaders/ members of a selected number of local institutions, and a final follow-up opportunity to share the research findings at village meetings or focus in groups to validate or change these findings. Lessons learned from the methodology and field experience have been incorporated into the FAO/SDAR Guidelines referred to above.

Local Institution - Livelihood Linkages

Detailed household surveys, using stratified random sampling, were carried out in all eleven villages. The data provide a wealth of information on the livelihood strategies and outcomes of poor, middle and relatively richer households, including income sources and levels, as well as consumption levels. Information was also gathered on local institutions and linkages with livelihood strategies by means of Community Rural Appraisals (using such techniques as Social Mapping and Venn Diagrams), institutional profiles, and institutional questions incorporated into the household surveys. Considerable effort was made to "uncover" the less formal institutions, arrangements and practices that are often overlooked in field research. Table 1 provides a partial list of the local institutions identified by the three research teams.

Table 1: Local Institutions Identified during Field Research (partial list)

Comparing and summing across the three sets of data, we find that agriculture is the predominant activity in the Indian and Mozambique villages, whereas it is in decline in Oaxaca. Farming is primarily for subsistence in all three cases, however, commercial crops are grown by the more wealthy farmers. Scarce land, abundant labour, stagnant land markets, and an increasing use of modern inputs among small farmers - with access to water - characterize the Gujarati villages. Large numbers of villagers are landless and live day-to-day from wage labour. In contrast, Mozambique has relatively abundant land but very minimal use of mechanization, improved seeds and fertilizers. Families make up food deficits with migration remittances, petty commerce, wage labour, sharecropping and the use of common property resources. The Oaxacan indigenous villages are relatively better off in terms of food security and income, but face serious challenges from out-migration, declining agriculture and in managing their common forest resources.

India

Agriculture occupies over 80 percent of the villagers surveyed, 37 percent as farmers and 45 percent as wage labourers. The average land holding is very small at about 2.7 acres, or slightly more than one hectare. Rampura Vadla, in Banaskantha District in northern Gujarat, is a small mainly tribal village that depends on dry land agriculture. Many families go out of the village as migratory labour, but return in the rainy season. The large multi-caste village of Malan, in Banaskantha, also depends on dry land farming, supplemented with some well irrigation. Large numbers of people engage in sharecropping. Malavada, in Kheda District in central Gujarat, has adequate irrigation to grow commercial crops, principally rice and wheat, and landless villagers survive from farm wage work. Piparia, also in Kheda, has irrigated farming and recent growth in vegetable production in response to increased urban demand. Two of its caste groups live only on livestock rearing. Both of the Kheda villages have dairy cooperatives.

Poverty in these villages is associated with access to land, irrigation and cattle, which in turn are associated with caste, ethnicity, gender and education. The research team classified the survey households (120 total) by asset ownership, as shown in Table 2. The table presents estimated average aggregate monthly household consumption by district and classification group. Converting to annual figures, household consumption levels range from US$400 for the landless/marginal farmers, US$700 for farmers with irrigated land and livestock, to nearly US$1 000 for those engaged in the tertiary sector (the 'service class').

Table 2: Average Aggregate Household Consumption (RS/month)

The research team identified 38 different local institutions functioning in the four villages, and through participatory social mapping exercises was able to "locate" the mix of castes, tribes and religions in each village (Figure 3, Malawada). Marketing, educational, labour, savings (bachat mandal), youth and religious groups are common, as well as the village gram panchayat (governing councils), cooperative milk producers' societies and multi-service cooperatives.

Disaggregation by gender showed that most village-based institutions or organizations are male-dominated in membership and leadership, with the exception of the women-only dairy cooperative in Piparia, most savings groups and the "Mahila Mandals" (religious/social groups of women). There is growing plurality of membership by caste, religion and socio-economic standing, particularly in the dairy and multi-service cooperatives, and the village panchayat ⁸. Nevertheless, participation in economic institutions is limited by access to land, cattle and fodder, ability to assume risk, illiteracy, and caste divisions that persist despite legislation to the contrary.

Local agricultural institutions are relatively ineffective in helping the landless (nearly 36 percent of sample) and marginal farmers (30 percent of sample) to break out of poverty. Sharecropping is typically practiced at unfavourable terms that do not allow the sharecropper to accumulate and escape day-to-day survival. Land markets are stagnant and land rentals are not common. However, livestock-sharing and money-lending arrangements have allowed many poor families to acquire one or two milk cows, become members of the village dairies, and increase their earning capacity significantly. This is an instance where local institutions (village dairies) provide a means for the poor to take advantage of increased demand for milk resulting from higher incomes among the urban and landed rural population since economic reforms initiated in the early 1990s. Participation by the poor, especially in dry areas, is nevertheless constrained by limited access to fodder to feed the animals.

The government-supported "fair price" shops provide basic foods at subsidized prices under various targeting schemes, and are a vital means for covering food deficits for the poor. There are also many informal arrangements between the poor and better-off households that enable the poor to survive despite very precarious livelihoods and low wage rates⁹. These arrangements, rooted in mutual dependency and social norms, include giving domestic work to the poor, making loans of cash or food, advancing wages to trusted labourers, providing meals and tea to farm workers, and helping with emergencies. The gram panchayat mobilize government funds and village donations of labour and money for community projects such as road improvement, school construction and installation of latrines for the poor.

Mozambique

In the two communities in the north, Netia and Banga, in Nampula and Tete provinces, respectively, the families depend primarily on subsistence agriculture, sale of agricultural products (cotton, potatoes) and beer brewing for food and income. In the southern villages (Massoane and Djavanhane in Maputo and Gaza provinces, respectively) with less and more irregular rainfall, as well as in close proximity to South Africa, families depend more on remittances, off-farm labour, livestock and common property resources, such as wild fruits and the sale of firewood, as well as subsistence agriculture. Massoane has particularly severe food security problems largely explained by the invasion of elephants in the crop fields.

The level of consumption varies greatly within and between the four villages. The annual consumption per adult equivalent was US$108 in Djavanhane, US$79 in Banga, US$72 in Netia and US$45 in Massoane. By consumption quartile, the values ranged from US$175 for the richest households to US$21 for the poorest. The main sources of income for the poorest households are remittances and working for others (ganho ganho), as well as sale of forest products. The poor also reduce consumption and seek assistance from relatives and through forms of mutual assistance. Table 3 reports the principal responses to the question, "Faced with hunger, what do you do to survive?"

Data on participation in local institutions and their perceived importance to households show that the most important local institution in all four study villages, particularly for women, is the church, followed by traditional authorities and political parties. In terms of informal, traditional institutions, Mozambique rural society is replete with different types of local arrangements between people of relatively lower and higher economic status. There are many different forms of mutual assistance based on social norms of reciprocity. Local institutions have survived a long history of repression and civil strife in Mozambique and are now being revitalized under a more liberalized regime, and in the absence in rural areas of formal economic and social institutions.

Table 3: Survival Strategies of the Poor

Tables 4 and 5 relate household participation in local institutions and arrangements with socio-economic well-being, using local classifications of poverty and wealth. In general, there are few barriers for participation in these institutions, and the poor and women are well represented. An exception may be political parties that appeal to the richer families, mainly men. Even the fees required for church membership do not appear to present a significant barrier to participation of the poor because of options for contributing free labour instead of food or cash. Table 5 shows that the poor and average households depend more on informal economic arrangements, than the rich, with the exception of local credit and loans of food which imply some repayment capacity.

Table 4: Household Participation in Local Institutions by Local Classifications of Wealth (numbers in parentheses are %)

Table 5: Household Participation in Local Arrangements by Local Classifications of Wealth (numbers in parentheses are %)

In a multivariate analysis, higher levels of consumption were significantly correlated with land area farmed and literacy of the head of household, but not with participation in local institutions. Further exploration of these institutions in the next section, however, will show their importance for social cohesion, food security and village mobilization for collective action.

Mexico

In the Zapotec villages of the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, subsistence agriculture has declined in the average family income portfolio. An increasingly dominant role of migration in household livelihoods has left agricultural land abandoned, reduced the demographic pressure on land, and loosened the social norms related to access and use of land. Community forestry enterprises have not been able to stall migration. Agricultural and livestock sharecropping are practiced among a small number of farm families as a means to ensure food security (access to maize and fodder) under conditions of environmental and economic uncertainty.

A detailed analysis of income sources (Chapter 5, Mexico Final Report) shows that migration remittances, primarily from migration to the United States, constitutes a major part of the income strategies of the majority of families in all three communities. Other sources of income are wage work, services, commerce and forestry (logging, sawmill). Maize cultivation is mainly for home consumption and most families need to supplement with purchased corn. Livestock, like agriculture, is declining in importance although cattle raising is still important for a small number of families. Average annual household income was estimated at Mx$57 703 in Ixtlan de Juarez, Mx$47 000 in Macuiltianguis; and Mx$42 000 in Capulalpan (10 pesos/US$).

Field research in Ixtlan, Macuiltianguis and Capulalpan uncovered a rich network of local institutions associated with the main livelihood activities: agriculture, livestock, forestry, migration and commerce. In Table 6 these institutions are categorized by increasing levels of organization from interfamily to extra-community. The team focused on three economic institutions: 1) property rights and land tenure; 2) forestry enterprises; and 3) agricultural and livestock sharecropping arrangements¹⁰.

Property rights in the Sierra Norte are being redefined as a result of reduced demographic pressure on the land from out-migration, and the felt need to keep migrants tied to their home communities. Thus, the old rule of losing one's land rights if the land is not cultivated has been loosened so that migrants can keep their land in exchange for paying financial contributions and remaining active in local government. Nevertheless, traditional prohibitions persist against women and "outsiders" owning and inheriting land.

All three communities have established community forestry enterprises to log, process and market wood from their common property resources. In economic terms, the enterprises have not prospered because of inadequate technology and low efficiency, nor have the few decent jobs created been sufficient to reduce out-migration from the region. Nevertheless, these enterprises continue to be a vital part of community life. Profits are invested in highly valued public goods roads, water, rural electrification, and cultural-religious traditions and fiestas, thus, supporting "the continuity of the traditions and political and civic-religious structures of the indigenous culture."(Mexico Final Report, Chapter 5:70)

Sharecropping arrangements, based on sharing of the harvest in exchange for sharing of labour and other production costs - especially oxen and plough or tractor - minimize monetary costs and distribute and diminish risk. The arrangement terms vary but are typically rooted in custom and social relations. Families with access to land and cattle, but with insufficient labour (where the opportunity cost of labour is associated with out-migration), team with families lacking land and cattle, but with surplus labour. Sharing of cattle enables families who cannot afford to purchase cattle to obtain through these arrangements the offspring of the cattle. "Agricultural and livestock sharecropping is an interfamily institution that deals effectively with market failures in access to animals, tractors, labour and credit." (Ibid. p. 74-77) Yet sharecropping as an institutional practice is now less common because of the diminishing role of agriculture in the local economy.