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Chapter 6 Creating opportunities in the rural non-farm economy 209
The impact of remittances on agriculture is mixed and highly contextual. In some
cases, migration, which in most regions mostly involves men, and remittances foster
on-farm investment and agricultural production. In others, the opposite occurs:
migration leads to an immediate decline in (mostly male) labour availability, for
which it may not be possible to compensate in the short term. Remittances are in
some cases used to hire on-farm labour. However, the general trend seems to be that
they accelerate a move out of agriculture – or foster forms of agriculture that take on
a subordinate role to off-farm activities.
The social costs can be high, as families are divided when typically only some
individuals migrate. In addition, when men migrate (as is most often the case) and
remittances are low, poverty may increase back at home, which may result in food
shortages and increased child labour. More generally, and as mentioned above,
migration can result in labour shortages, for instance on family farms, which may
have negative consequences in terms of income and food security. Child labour
The costs of migration
“… Of course, travelling
abroad would have provided
me with the financial
resources to build a better
house… in addition to buying
some luxuries of electrical
appliances and furniture…
[but] I did not want to leave
my family and kids alone.
I preferred to stay close to my
family rather than to travel
after money. I know a lot of
men who travelled abroad for
work and made a lot of
money, but when they came
back to the village they found
that their children had
becomes drug addicts or left
school. I did not want that to
happen to me and my kids.”
Ibrahiem Abo Zeid,
male, 55 years, Egypt
“Our village is our own…
because it is the land of our
ancestors. We cannot leave it.
Wherever a person works,
he returns to the village.
Our happiness and our
sorrows are in this village.
Our relatives live here, which
is why we cannot leave this
place. We have our own land,
that’s why we will live here
and not go anywhere else.”
Muhammad Naveed,
male, 22 years, Pakistan
“One doesn’t have any relatives
out there. If l died while away,
there would be no one to bring
my body back here, to my
fatherland. There are no
relatives there, if one gets in
trouble, there is no one to save
you in that land of no family.
But here, if one dies, my
neighbours will not let my
body rot there but will bury it.
And there is no one who sees
you not having eaten for 2 or
3 days that won’t say, ‘Here’s
some hot water, drink that
and you will see the morning’…
But in the land of strangers
there is no one to do that to
you. It’s only by your own
energy that you survive.”
Tovoke,
male, 44 years, Madagascar
“The men have left to work
outside the village. The main
labour force here is women.
Men have gone to earn
money… They go to find some
work. They can only earn some
money doing odd jobs. Those
in good health can find work,
but for those in poor health,
they… just drift along, muddle
along. They can’t think too
much about their future.”
Li Guimin,
female, 50 years, China