E. Fairet
Rural emptiness and its influence on subsistence farming in contemporary Gabon: A case study in Loango National Park
Fairet, E.; Bell, S.; Remanda, K.; Setchell, J.M.
Authors
Sandra Bell sandra.bell@durham.ac.uk
Emeritus Professor
K. Remanda
Professor Jo Setchell joanna.setchell@durham.ac.uk
Professor
Abstract
In sub-Saharan Africa, rural exodus leads to increasing unemployment in urban centres and to the disorganisation of farming practice in rural areas. This article draws on data from participant observation and interviews to analyse how rural exodus, combined with a population density that was already low, led to what we refer to as rural emptiness in Gabon, and how this affects farmers’ livelihoods. Farming in Gabon is largely slash and burn agriculture with a gender division of labour and therefore requires both men and women. Farming practices at our study site, in Loango National Park, follow a traditional pattern, but the labour force has been reshaped by demographic and social change. The exodus of young people, especially men, has left ageing farmers with increased workloads but decreased access to labour. Subsistence farming is, therefore, in a state of crisis and farmers’ livelihoods are threatened. Promoting the development of farming and rendering rural life more appealing through the development of roads and other infrastructure could reverse current trends of high unemployment, weakened agricultural production and high dependence on imported food in Gabon.
Citation
Fairet, E., Bell, S., Remanda, K., & Setchell, J. (2014). Rural emptiness and its influence on subsistence farming in contemporary Gabon: A case study in Loango National Park. Social biology and human affairs, 78(1-2), 39-59
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jun 18, 2014 |
Publication Date | Jan 1, 2014 |
Deposit Date | Feb 23, 2015 |
Publicly Available Date | Aug 24, 2015 |
Journal | Social biology and human affairs. |
Print ISSN | 0143-5051 |
Publisher | BioSocial Society |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 78 |
Issue | 1-2 |
Pages | 39-59 |
Keywords | Rural exodus, Labour, Agriculture, Central Africa. |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1412305 |
Publisher URL | http://www.biosocsoc.org/sbha/ |
Files
Published Journal Article
(318 Kb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
Copyright Statement
This work is available under the Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
You might also like
Tropical field stations yield high conservation return on investment
(2024)
Journal Article
Chemical cues of identity and reproductive status in Japanese macaques
(2022)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Durham Research Online (DRO)
Administrator e-mail: dro.admin@durham.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search