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ACTIVITY No. 143 • FSN Forum digest No. 1319
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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
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Andrea Cattaneo, facilitator
of the consultation
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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
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CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED
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Ricardo
Safra de Campos, University of Exeter, United Kingdom
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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
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Eri
Uchimura, ILO, Switzerland
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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
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Rejaul
Karim, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, Nepal
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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
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Mylene
Rodríguez Leyton, Universidad Metropolitana de Barranquilla, Colombia
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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
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Binni
Azad, National Forum for Women’s Rights, India
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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”.
Read
the contribution
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Dineshkumar
Singh, TATA Consultancy Services, India
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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
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Luis
Antonio Hualda, University of the Philippines Mindanao, Philippines
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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
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Joseph
Ogubande, University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Nigeria
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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.
Read
the contribution
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Laura
L. Dawson, Food Physics & Body Dynamics LLC, United States of America
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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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