Table Of ContentRURAL DEVELOPMENT –
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
AND PRACTICES
Edited by Rashid Solagberu Adisa
Rural Development – Contemporary Issues and Practices
Edited by Rashid Solagberu Adisa
Published by InTech
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First published March, 2012
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Rural Development – Contemporary Issues and Practices,
Edited by Rashid Solagberu Adisa
p. cm.
ISBN 978-953-51-0461-2
Contents
Preface IX
Section 1 Introduction 1
Introductory Rural Development in the
Chapter Twenty-First Century as a Global Necessity 3
Rashid Solagberu Adisa
Section 2 Issues and Concepts 15
Chapter 1 Sustainable Agriculture – A Panacea
for Achieving Biodiversity Conservation
and Rural Development in Sub-Saharan Africa? 17
Simon M. Munthali, Richard M. Mkandawire and Nasson Tembo
Chapter 2 Renewable Energy for
Rural Development – A Namibian Experience 33
Ravinder Rena
Chapter 3 The Multi-Functionality of Agriculture
and Territorial Governance – A Learning
Process in an Island Environment (Réunion) 55
Michel Dulcire, Eduardo Chia and Marc Piraux
Chapter 4 New Insights into the Assessment of
Protected Areas – Integrating Rural Development 75
Iker Etxano
Chapter 5 Land Use Conflict Between
Farmers and Herdsmen – Implications for
Agricultural and Rural Development in Nigeria 99
Rashid Solagberu Adisa
Chapter 6 Technological Model and Sustainable Rural
Development for Rainy-Spell Corn Producers in Mexico 119
Miguel A. Damián-Huato, Artemio Cruz-León,
Benito Ramírez-Valverde, Agustín Aragón-García,
A. Patricia Ramírez-Carrasco and Jesús F. López-Olguín
VI Contents
Chapter 7 Gender Issues in Agricultural
Extension and Rural Development in Nigeria 139
Stella O. Odebode
Chapter 8 Social Marginality and Subsistence
Agriculture – Way of Life in Rural
Communities in Central Mexico 157
María Estela Orozco Hernández
Chapter 9 From Tsetse Control to Sustainable
Rural Development – Progress and
Opportunities for an Ethiopian Community 173
Johann Baumgärtner and Getachew Tikubet
Section 3 Policy and Practices 197
Chapter 10 Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of
Rural Development Programs in the European
Union – Towards a More Efficient Monitoring
of the Environmental Effects of Agricultural Policies 199
Agata Spaziante, Carlo Rega, Mirko Carbone and Chiara Murano
Chapter 11 Financial Resources in
Rural Development – An Analysis of
Relational Capital in Credit Cooperatives 223
Elies Seguí-Mas and Ricardo J. Server Izquierdo
Chapter 12 Statistics for Rural Development Policy 241
Berkeley Hill
Chapter 13 Integrated Marketing
Approach as a Rural Development Tool 257
Yavuz Topcu
Chapter 14 Development Potentials of
Rural Areas – The Case of Slovenia 283
Anton Perpar and Andrej Udovč
Chapter 15 Tracing the Consequences of Economic
Crisis in Rural Areas – Evidence from Greece 311
Stavros Zografakis and Pavlos Karanikolas
Chapter 16 Direct Food Marketing at Farm Level
and Its Impacts on Rural Development 337
István Fehér
Chapter 17 The African Experience with ICT
for Rural Women’s Development 355
Meera K. Joseph
Contents VII
Chapter 18 When Life Style Entrepreneurs
Establish Micro-Businesses in Rural Areas –
The Case of Women in the Danish Countryside 375
Lise Herslund and Hanne Tanvig
Chapter 19 A Chronicle of the Timber
Industry in East Arnhem Land, Australia 393
Cecil A.L. Pearson and Klaus Helms
Preface
Meeting the challenge of attaining overall development has for a long time been the
preoccupation of all nations of the world. Because of the multi-faceted and all-
encompassing nature of ‘development’, even the most advanced nations of the world
today are battling with many ‘developmental’ challenges. Suffice it to agree with the
notion that development is a process and not a destination. Increase in per capita/real
income, enhanced sources and distributive mechanisms of wealth, and advancement
in technological and administrative manpower are sine qua non, but not sufficient in
the developmental process. Development also entails some environmental, cultural,
social, psychological, and political requisites.
Another crucial index of development is ‘balanced development of both urban and
rural centers’ (Umeabu, 2008). No nation would achieve any meaningful success in the
development process without deliberately and fairly paying attention to the
developmental needs and prospects of its rural communities. A realization of this
perhaps explains the increasing policy and research focus on rural development
worldwide. Unfortunately, rural communities in most parts of the world are still
mired in poverty, disease and other forms of backwardness.
Although the population of the developing world is still more rural than urban (IFAD,
2011), the twentieth century witnessed a significant decrease in the percentage of
people inhabiting rural areas worldwide. Global rural population declined from about
87% in 1900 to 71% in 1950, and 51% 2005. At the beginning of the 21st century, just
about 76 countries worldwide had above 50% rural population. According to
Wimberley (2008), what was referred to as the ‘day of transition’ or ‘urban
millennium’- when global urban population exceeded rural population for the first
time, was reached on December 16, 2008. What are the implications of this scenario for
rural communities? Is the world moving towards total de-ruralization? Are we having
more cities and less rural communities? Are rural communities becoming urbanized?
Is rural development becoming more attainable or less relevant? These questions are
perhaps easier to ask than answered. But there are yet more questions. For instance,
what are the contemporary challenges of rural communities; who or what created
them; how are they being met, and to what degree of success or failure? Again, there is
no consensus among stakeholders on the answers to these questions. It is almost
certain that there would never be. In other words, rural development and its attributes
X Preface
and tributaries shall continue to be controversial in the policy and professional realms.
But given man’s infinite quest for, and acquisition of knowledge and solutions, rural
development, like every other field of human venture must evolve and employ
realistic approaches while confronting perennial and emerging issues.
Rural development issues are crucial to the attainment of the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). The aim of this book is to provide a wide-ranging single volume that
addresses the major issues, concepts and practices concerning rural development across
the globe. The book also aims to fill the knowledge gaps and offer evidence-based policy
recommendations on contemporary problems associated with overall management and
development of rural communities in both developed and developing countries.
Particularly, as developing countries continue to battle with perennial developmental
problems such as poverty and illiteracy, while grappling with emerging ones such as
shortage of energy, climate change and increasing resource-use conflict, there is need to
offer practicable models that would provide rapid and lasting responses. This book seeks
to contribute to the promotion of this process.
There are three sections in this book of 20 chapters. The first section consists of one
chapter (Chapter 1) – the introductory chapter. Chapter 1 is a general overview of
rural development and argues that for the world to witness meaningful overall
progress in the 21st century and get near achieving the MDGs, rural development
efforts must take the center stage. The chapter, which should be of interest to the non-
specialist reader as well, consists of sub-topics that discuss ‘rural’; rural development;
factors affecting rural development; and importance, problems, and indicators of rural
development. The chapter concludes with suggestions on strategies that developing
countries can use to overcome rural development challenges.
The remaining 19 chapters are grouped in to two sections: (1) Issues and Concepts,
and (2) Policy and Practices. The former consists of 9 chapters (Chapters 2 - 10), while
the latter is made up of 10 chapters (Chapters 11 - 20). The section on issues and
concepts in rural development begins with Chapter 2, which addressed sustainable
agriculture and its potentials to enhance biodiversity conservation and rural
development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The chapter offered a conceptual overview
of sustainable agriculture and its performance in SSA. It also discussed the conditions
under which sustainable agriculture could contribute to improved food production,
biodiversity conservation & rural development in SSA. Chapter 3 chronicles the
Namibian experience in renewable energy technologies for rural development. The
chapter provides an overview of the pertinent issues surrounding the use of renewable
energy technologies (RETs) to increase access to modern energy services in rural areas
of Namibia. Chapter 4 focuses on territorial governance and multi-functionality of
agriculture. The chapter also addressed sustainable agriculture in relation to territorial
governance and analyzed the tools and institutional arrangements of stakeholders in
order to ensure territorial management, with emphasis on the learning processes.
Chapter 5 examines land use conflicts between cattle herdsmen and arable crop
farmers in Nigeria and its implication for agriculture and rural development. The
