The Socio-Economic Impact of De-Agrarianisation in Sub-Sahara: A Re-Look on Rural Livelihoods and Employment

Abstract

This article critically engages with the academic debate on de-agrarianisation
which has gained traction in political economy perspectives of agrarian
change in Sub-Saharan Africa. De-agrarianisation represents long-term
processes of occupational adjustment, income-earning reorientation and the
spatial relocation of rural dwellers away from strictly agricultural modes of
livelihood. Given that Sub-Saharan Africa is steadily becoming less rural in
character, there is a need to explore the critical factors that drive deagrarianisation and its implications on rural socio-economic development. It
emerges that the de-agrarianisation process is a historical process dating back
from the colonial era. It is driven by urban and industrial development, the
globalisation process, neoliberal policies, climate change variability, growth
of off-farm livelihood options and access to education. This phenomenon has
far-reaching widespread social, economic and ecological effects in rural areas.
We challenge the taken-for-granted assumptions of the farm household
efficiency paradigm that has dominated rural development thinking in the
Global South and recommend the need for measures that can help boost nonfarm activities availability, including increasing the access of rural households
to assets such as financial capital and non-price factors like education and
infrastructure. The development of non-farm activities should complement
the effort to re-agrarianise since activities in the former depend directly or
indirectly on the latter.