TY - BOOK
T1 - Integration of Youth into Smallholding Agriculture
T2 - Challenges, Impacts and Prospects: Perspectives from Cambodia
AU - Ly, Kimlong
N1 - D
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - The objective of this doctoral dissertation is to look at the factors that determine thedecisions of youth and their parents regarding youth occupation and thereby to understand theconditions for integrating youth into family farming.In the context of developing countries, there are increasing concerns that the youngergenerations may lose interest in farming, since this is likely to threaten global food security inthe long-term. The increasing importance of migration and non-farm activities to rurallivelihoods in developing countries has raised a scholarly debate about whether smallholderfarming holds a potential for the youth in the future at all. However, especially in a SoutheastAsian context, there are only very few available studies concerned with understanding theoptions for and the decisions of youth and their parents regarding youth occupation and farmintegration.The present dissertation addresses this research gap by drawing on primary data froma fieldwork in Cambodia. Cambodia is home of smallholder rice-based farming, and thecountry experiences rapid population growth. There is therefore a huge need to ensure youngpeoples‟ livelihoods and incomes either through their integration in the labour market, or insmallholder farming.The fieldwork took place in Cambodia‟s Otdar Meanchey low-density area and Takeohigh-density area in 2012 and 2013. Within these two provinces, the fieldwork covered fivedistricts (18 villages). The main purpose of the fieldwork was to understand the current andpotential future role of family farming in accommodating young people. The data collectionmethods included questionnaire surveys, semi-structured and focus group interviews,participant observation, and a case study of an NGO (CEDAC) driven youth-integration-infarmingprogram. A typology of farming systems and strategies was developed for the surveyand discussion.The dissertation shows that due to low levels of education, the rural youth inCambodia has few alternatives other than to rely on smallholder rice farming or migrate.Though acknowledging that farming is hard work, rural youth and households do notdisregard farm work, and they actually do consider family farming as one of their mainoptions. However, when having engaged in farming even with support from CEDAC, manyof the young people experience that farming cannot sustain them and their families. It istherefore common that they re-consider whether they should stay in and/or leave farming, ordiversify by seasonal migration.Further, the results indicate that integrating youth into farming is purely a familydecision. Settling in new pioneer areas is one of the household strategies to get access to newland and thereby secure the children‟s future. Only in situations where plots of land are toosmall to get sub-divided, households tend to invest in children‟s higher education. Given thatnon-farm activities cannot accommodate the growing number of active workers and that land,due to population increase, will have to be sub-divided for families even below the minimumthreshold of sustainable living, the study concludes that the future livelihood of children mustbe secured under the motto of ―sharing the survival” or “Chék Khear Ros‖ i.e., by combiningboth farming and non-farming activities.The growth of the population in the rural areas of Cambodia, together with the slowerpace of job development in the secondary and tertiary sectors, suggest that in the future, moreland for cultivation will be needed most likely at the expense of forest and wetland. Therewill, therefore, be a need for redefining the land tenure systems in the country. One optioncould be to distribute land from cancelled economic concessions to rural families. There isalso a need for further studies of integration programs in Cambodia under social landconcessions, which is the existing legal framework for providing access to land for poorpeople to see if they are still part of the solution.While existing studies mainly explain ways in which people been quitted farmingbased on push/pull factors and personal cost benefit, this study applied institutional changetheory as process of problem solving to explain this question: problems that Cambodiansmallholder agriculture face in their farming system become “a shared mental model “or “ashared rule” among family member and its social group that motivate them to actspontaneously or deliberately such as whether they should stay in and/or leave farming, ordiversify by seasonal migration. This study is the first exploration the question of youth andfamily farming in Cambodia which could be interest for others country having similarcontext.
AB - The objective of this doctoral dissertation is to look at the factors that determine thedecisions of youth and their parents regarding youth occupation and thereby to understand theconditions for integrating youth into family farming.In the context of developing countries, there are increasing concerns that the youngergenerations may lose interest in farming, since this is likely to threaten global food security inthe long-term. The increasing importance of migration and non-farm activities to rurallivelihoods in developing countries has raised a scholarly debate about whether smallholderfarming holds a potential for the youth in the future at all. However, especially in a SoutheastAsian context, there are only very few available studies concerned with understanding theoptions for and the decisions of youth and their parents regarding youth occupation and farmintegration.The present dissertation addresses this research gap by drawing on primary data froma fieldwork in Cambodia. Cambodia is home of smallholder rice-based farming, and thecountry experiences rapid population growth. There is therefore a huge need to ensure youngpeoples‟ livelihoods and incomes either through their integration in the labour market, or insmallholder farming.The fieldwork took place in Cambodia‟s Otdar Meanchey low-density area and Takeohigh-density area in 2012 and 2013. Within these two provinces, the fieldwork covered fivedistricts (18 villages). The main purpose of the fieldwork was to understand the current andpotential future role of family farming in accommodating young people. The data collectionmethods included questionnaire surveys, semi-structured and focus group interviews,participant observation, and a case study of an NGO (CEDAC) driven youth-integration-infarmingprogram. A typology of farming systems and strategies was developed for the surveyand discussion.The dissertation shows that due to low levels of education, the rural youth inCambodia has few alternatives other than to rely on smallholder rice farming or migrate.Though acknowledging that farming is hard work, rural youth and households do notdisregard farm work, and they actually do consider family farming as one of their mainoptions. However, when having engaged in farming even with support from CEDAC, manyof the young people experience that farming cannot sustain them and their families. It istherefore common that they re-consider whether they should stay in and/or leave farming, ordiversify by seasonal migration.Further, the results indicate that integrating youth into farming is purely a familydecision. Settling in new pioneer areas is one of the household strategies to get access to newland and thereby secure the children‟s future. Only in situations where plots of land are toosmall to get sub-divided, households tend to invest in children‟s higher education. Given thatnon-farm activities cannot accommodate the growing number of active workers and that land,due to population increase, will have to be sub-divided for families even below the minimumthreshold of sustainable living, the study concludes that the future livelihood of children mustbe secured under the motto of ―sharing the survival” or “Chék Khear Ros‖ i.e., by combiningboth farming and non-farming activities.The growth of the population in the rural areas of Cambodia, together with the slowerpace of job development in the secondary and tertiary sectors, suggest that in the future, moreland for cultivation will be needed most likely at the expense of forest and wetland. Therewill, therefore, be a need for redefining the land tenure systems in the country. One optioncould be to distribute land from cancelled economic concessions to rural families. There isalso a need for further studies of integration programs in Cambodia under social landconcessions, which is the existing legal framework for providing access to land for poorpeople to see if they are still part of the solution.While existing studies mainly explain ways in which people been quitted farmingbased on push/pull factors and personal cost benefit, this study applied institutional changetheory as process of problem solving to explain this question: problems that Cambodiansmallholder agriculture face in their farming system become “a shared mental model “or “ashared rule” among family member and its social group that motivate them to actspontaneously or deliberately such as whether they should stay in and/or leave farming, ordiversify by seasonal migration. This study is the first exploration the question of youth andfamily farming in Cambodia which could be interest for others country having similarcontext.
UR - https://rex.kb.dk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=KGL01011006526&context=L&vid=NUI&search_scope=KGL&tab=default_tab&lang=da_DK
M3 - Ph.D. thesis
BT - Integration of Youth into Smallholding Agriculture
PB - Department of Food and Resource Economics, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen
ER -
