Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition

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ACTIVITY No. 143   •   FSN Forum digest No. 1319

Rural migration, agriculture and rural development

 

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Dear Members,

The online consultation Rural migration, agriculture and rural development has come to an end. Please find below the latest contributions and the closing message from Andrea Cattaneo, the facilitator of the consultation.

We would like to join Andrea in thanking you for the valuable contributions received. In his feedback message, Andrea points out that the new issues and approaches you have introduced during this exchange will be very helpful in further developing the 2018 edition of The State of Food and Agriculture.

The report, which will be launched September next year, will also benefit from the many interesting information resources you have submitted.

Please find a full overview of the discussion on the webpage, where you can also download the proceedings document.

Thank you very much again for your active participation, we hope you have enjoyed this exchange!

Your FSN Forum team

 

 

Andrea Cattaneo, facilitator of the consultation

Dear all,

Thank you again to all the contributors for the valuable input. The feedback received is clearly based on a wealth of experiences that contributors have gathered around the world, providing different perspectives on the theme of migration, agriculture, and rural development.

Some of the issues raised are very much in line with FAO’s approach to rural development as a way of providing a choice to people living in rural areas, on whether to migrate or not. This year’s State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA), launched on October 9th, focused on territorial approaches to rural development, and the role of the food system in lifting people out of poverty in rural areas. Based on contributors’ comments, for SOFA 2018 we will try to build on this territorial approach and link it more directly to the drivers and impacts of rural migration. Another aspect that emerged from the discussion is the role of urban areas in providing employment, services and amenities. The report will try to capture the differentials between rural and urban areas as drivers of migration and policy implications.   

We also received contributions highlighting work of which we were not aware, or pointing in directions that we had not considered. For example, the issue of migrant fishers is one that was not part of our initial outline, but one that we believe should be included. Another aspect to be considered is the health and nutritional status of both migrants and those left behind.

In the coming months we will be collecting further information and produce a report that is evidence-based, and hopefully provide new policy-relevant insights on the topic. Thank you to all of you for indicating ongoing empirical work of relevance to the publication, and the broader literature on migration dynamics, demography, and gender-related migration issues. The dialogue and input provided was very helpful in providing guidance to our team. I particularly appreciated the time taken by contributors on how to improve the report structure and provide a clearer rationale for the document.

The 2018 edition of the State of Food and Agriculture is scheduled to be launched in mid-September 2018. This leaves only a few months to prepare the report since we have to allow time for translation in the other 5 official UN languages and for the production process. In the coming days we will be receiving commissioned background papers on country case studies that we hope will enrich the report with different regional perspectives. We will also be incorporating your suggestions on the outline and exploring some of the information resources that emerged in the forum.

A big thank you to all who participated in this Forum!

Andrea

 

CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED

iconRicardo Safra de Campos, University of Exeter, United Kingdom

Ricardo argues that planned relocation of households or entire communities should be considered in the report. He also points to the research currently undertaken by the Deltas, Vulnerability & Climate Change: Migration & Adaptation (DECCMA) project, which has assembled large datasets of areas that are sending and receiving migrants. These datasets are being analysed, and forthcoming planned outputs include peer-reviewed manuscripts on Perceived environmental risks and expected outcomes as motivations for migration decisions; Investment in adaptive capacity enhances resilience in high migration intensity households; and Household composition, migration, and remittances: evidence from Deltas. 

Read the contribution

 

iconEri Uchimura, ILO, Switzerland

Eri points to the Tripartite Meeting on Issues Relating to Migrant Fishers held by ILO in September 2017, and shares a report discussed during the Meeting, which provides a basis for discussion on the issues faced by migrant fishers, and how these could be addressed. Eri notes that the challenges migrant fishers face, such as unfair recruitment practices and discrimination, overlap to a certain extent with those of agricultural and rural migration.

Read the contribution

Read the report

 

iconRejaul Karim, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, Nepal

Rejaul posts a piece he wrote, called “Rural migration paradox”, which addresses determinants, trends and impacts related to migration. It also includes a “way forward”, which discusses how agriculture and rural development can contribute to facilitating orderly, safe, regular and responsible mobility of people.

Read the contribution

 

iconMylene Rodríguez Leyton, Universidad Metropolitana de Barranquilla, Colombia

Mylene suggests to include figures illustrating the state of rural migration in the world, and to include an analysis on the relationship between migration and food systems. Another aspect to consider is how food security is being affected by urbanization processes. In addition, she suggests to revise the approach to migration, and to perceive migrants as individuals with capacities, aspirations and expectations, and not only as “producers in the agri-food system”. She also shares a number of publications on, among others, migration in Colombia and Nicaragua.

Read the contribution

 

iconBinni Azad, National Forum for Women’s Rights, India

Binni points out that in Jharkhand, India, migration mainly occurs due to two issues. First of all, deforestation adversely impacts farmers' livelihoods, as it leads, for instance, to increased droughts. In addition, forced eviction is taking place when land is transferred to corporations “in the name of development”.   

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iconDineshkumar Singh, TATA Consultancy Services, India

Dineshkumar shares a case study on the Marathwada region in India, which describes how extreme drought has caused outmigration to cities.

Read the case study

 

iconLuis Antonio Hualda, University of the Philippines Mindanao, Philippines

According to Luis, a holistic and systems perspective towards rural migration might be helpful in identifying the key causes of migration and for the formulation of policy strategies. Furthermore, he argues that there may be a need to explore the role of municipal and territorial planning in rural migration, agriculture, and rural development.

Read the contribution

 

iconJoseph Ogubande, University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Nigeria

Joseph argues that in rural Nigeria the absence of basic amenities causes youth migration, and that this issue could be addressed by providing social amenities and the equipment needed for mechanized farming.

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iconLaura L. Dawson, Food Physics & Body Dynamics LLC, United States of America

Laura believes that the report should pay more attention to health. She stresses that we first of all rely on our health and wellbeing for producing food.

Read the contribution

 

 

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