Department of economics

ECN 105 Elements of rural economics

Slide 2

Meaning of rural resources

• Rural resources refers to the natural and anthropic resources that include both tangible and intangible heritage located in rural areas.
• Land , water , forest, fisheries, are the primary resources in the rural area.
• They constitute the major input to agricultural production in rural economies.
• They are rural resources essential to maintain human life and well-being .
• Other natural or rural resources includes , minerals, Oil, coal, natural gas, metals, stone and sand, air, and sunlight.etc
• Natural resources are used for the production of food, fuel and raw materials for the production of goods.

Rural resource management

• Rural resource management is concerned with the institution of measures to control the use of rural resources , ensure sustainability and to minimize access differential among people of the rural community and the environs.
• Rural resource management practices includes micro –watershed management, soil and water conservation, community forestry, community based coastal zone fisheries management, and conservation of biodiversity.

Rural resource development

• Rural resource development is the act of removal, extraction, and primary processing of raw materials or rural resources.
• Rural resource development includes coal mining , gold mining ,oil and gas wells, stripping of top soil, gravel pits ,sand pits, clay pits etc.
• The management and development of rural or natural resources is critical to economic growth and development of every economy.

Need for management of rural/ natural resources

• Ensures judicious use of resources
• Avoidance of resource wastage
• To sustain the use of resources
• Ensure the proper disposal of waste.
• It enhances the long term planning of resources for development
• It may lead to the equitable distribution of resources

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Why do we develop natural or rural resources

• A source of fiscal revenue to Government
• Provides employment to citizens
• Generate income to citizens
• Contributes to poverty reduction
• Energy is generated for domestic ,industrial and commercial use
• Provide food, and raw materials for the production of goods.

Challenges of rural resource management

• Deforestation and forest degradation
• Biodiversity losses: Decline or disappearance of biological diversity due to exploitation, excessive hunting , pollution, climate change , global warming etc.
• Ecosystem degradation: An environmental problem that diminishes the capacity of species to survive. Pollution, climate change ,land clearing ,resource exploitation, population decline are some causes.
• Soil quality reduction through soil cultivation , soil erosion or other activities.
• Water quality reduction through water pollution
• Exploitation of resources such as oil , gold etc
• The damaging effect of chemicals used in resource extraction on human and animal life

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Rural development

• According to the World Bank (1975), rural development is defined as “a strategy aiming at the improvement of economic and social living conditions, focusing on a specific group of poor people in a rural area. It assists the poorest group among the people living in rural areas to benefit from development”.
• Rural development is a strategy designed to improve the economic and social life of rural poor. It is a process, which aims at improving the well being and self realization of people living outside the urbanized areas through collective process.

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Rural development cont.

• The United Nations defines Rural Development as: “Rural Development is a process of change, by which the efforts of the people themselves are united, those of government authorities to improve their economic, social and cultural conditions of communities in to the life of the nation and to enable them to contribute fully to national programme.”

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• Rural Development is all about bringing change among rural community from the traditional way of living to progressive way of living.

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• It is also expressed as a movement for progress.

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ICT and rural development

• ICT is information , communication technology
• ICT consist of hardware, software, networks and media for collection, storage , processing , transmission, and presentation of information( voice, data, text ,images).
• Digital divide between rural and urban areas is a set back to rural development.
• ICT offers an opportunity to introduce new applications, new activities , new services into rural areas aimed at improving lives of the people.
• The use of ICT in rural economies contribute towards enhancing quality and reduces cost of delivering services .

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Prospects of ICT in rural development

• ICT applications can support sustainable rural development through the national e-program framework in fields of :
• Agriculture
• Business
• Employment
• Education and training
• Health
• Environment
• Public administration

Benefits derived from ICT in rural development

• Improvement of production in agriculture
• Enhanced access to education and health services
• Enhanced the management of the rural environment .e.g. reduce water pollution, bush burning, land degradation,
• Improved communication services in rural areas .
• Poverty reduction
• Economic growth and development

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Significance of rural development

• To improve productivity in the primary sector especially agriculture , mining , oil extraction etc
• It facilitates the provision of infrastructure to support economic activities.eg roads, and other social amenities .
• Ensures the development of housing, education, health , sanitation which improves the quality of life of the people.
• To make the primary sector profitable and improve incomes of the rural people.
• To minimize or eliminate rural-urban migration
• Contributes to the reduction or elimination of rural poverty.
• It improves the contribution of rural economy to economic growth and development of the nation.

Challenges of rural development�

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• Climate change .The unfavorable weather conditions which militate against primary sector productivity.

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• Food insecurity. There is repeated food supply shortages which result to high inflationary pressures in the economy.

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• Inadequate rural finance .Credit and insurance to agriculture and allied occupations are woefully inadequate .This makes the primary sector production highly risky.

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• Inappropriate resource management practices. Eg pollution, bush burning , soil erosion etc

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• Inadequate infrastructure to boost primary sector production. Roads, schools , hospitals , telecommunication facilities are in adequate supply to the rural economy.

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Overcoming the challenges of rural development

• Sustainable resource management of land ,water , minerals and other resources.
• Development of infrastructure like irrigation , roads etc
• Availability of rural finance
• Eradication of rural poverty
• Good public health and education policies for rural human capital development
• Policies to minimize or eliminate rural –urban migration