Institutional Complexity and Resource Access in Transition: the challenges of co-operation for rural livelihood improvement. Final Report.

Abstract

Through an exploratory, comparative study of rural Kyrgyzstan and Romania, this study has explored the intricacies of a variety of forms of cooperation in agriculture. The findings highlight the safety net, labour specialisation, asset-pooling and service delivery functions (among others) of different groups that enable rural livelihoods to at times cope and at times improve in situations of imperfect information, sluggish labour and land markets and constrained capital markets. This study provides evidence that small to medium forms of cooperation provide the rural poor with predictable livelihood strategies under conditions of uncertainty. Despite the push for de-collectivisation and privatisation across transition countries there remains a place for encouraging group farming, at least for the medium term, on grounds of both poverty alleviation and agricultural growth. This final report outline's the project's background and objectives, methodology, findings and dissemination of results.

Citation

Sabates-Wheeler, R. Institutional Complexity and Resource Access in Transition: the challenges of co-operation for rural livelihood improvement. Final Report. (2003) 27 pp.

Institutional Complexity and Resource Access in Transition: the challenges of co-operation for rural livelihood improvement. Final Report.

Published 1 January 2003