Rural household pluriactivity and plurilocality: A source of resilience to climate breakdown

Abstract

Rural small-farmer households in Asia are characterized by a high degree of mobility of household members between places (pluriactivity) and sectors (plurilocality). These features are not well captured in Census and other large-scale statistics, or in common conceptions of 'occupation', 'farm' and 'household'. As climate change brings increasing risks and unpredictability to smallholder farming, pluriactive rural livelihoods can be important in the adaptation of poor and marginal rural groups to the vagaries and risks of climate change, while smallholder farming itself can be an important counter to climate change. Family farming, according to the Global Action Plan of the UN Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028, can contribute to all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. A revitalized smallholder farming depends not only on active support from governments, but also on the emergence of a new generation of young men and women interested in farming. Will there be a next generation of smallholder farmers? Or will smallholder farming be abandoned by the new generations, leaving big capital and the multinationals to take over? Recent research shows that while many young rural men and women indeed aspire to non-farming futures, they also have a clear idea of what is needed to make farming a more attractive option, especially: access to land, to markets, and government support, and combining farming with other income sources, reflecting the pluriactive and plurilocal character of sustainable rural livelihoods.