Agrarian Households in Semi-Arid Tropics

Evaluating Policy Options

Arnab Mukherji

ResearchPublished May 24, 2007

Approximately 165 million people, about a fifth of the world’s poor, are known to live in resource-scarce, agrarian households and are called “smallholders,” living in rain-fed, semi-arid, tropical areas (SATs). Uncertainty of livelihoods in SATs is higher than in other areas of intensive farming, with short bursts of intense rainfall, high soil erosion, and cycles of drought. This paper identifies which interventions succeed most in preserving smallholders’ household wealth: (a) livestock intervention, (b) a soil and water conservation intervention and (c) an employment guarantee scheme that allows households a fixed income during droughts. It reports that livestock management and soil and water conservation have a minimal impact on asset holdings, while the employment guarantee scheme provides substantial asset protection throughout the lifetime of these households. However, the livestock intervention is the most cost-effective intervention.

Topics

Document Details

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

Mukherji, Arnab, Agrarian Households in Semi-Arid Tropics: Evaluating Policy Options. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2007. https://www.rand.org/pubs/rgs_dissertations/RGSD216.html.
BibTeX RIS

Research conducted by

This document was submitted as a dissertation in September 2006 in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the doctoral degree in public policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. The faculty committee that supervised and approved the dissertation consisted of James R. Hosek (Chair), Ranjitha Puskur, Greg K. Ridgeway, and Neeraj Sood.

This publication is part of the RAND dissertation series. Dissertations are written by Ph.D. candidates at the RAND School of Public Policy and supervised, reviewed, and approved by a RAND School faculty committee overseeing each dissertation. The RAND School is the world's leading producer of Ph.D.'s in policy analysis.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.