COMMUNICATION, AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

A. THE IMPORTANCE OF MIGRATION FOR THE WORK OF THE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has a key role to play in migration issues as migration processes are closely related to agriculture, agricultural policy and rural development, for which FAO has a mandate within the United Nations system. Transformation processes in agriculture and rural areas influence migration patterns and migration dynamics, which in turn have significant implications for agriculture and rural development. For example, (a) Migration-induced changes in the population distribution —and, consequently, in the social organization and patterns of production and consumption in both sending and receiving countries and areas— can considerably affect both the supply of food and the demand for types of food produced and consumed; (b) In the context of missing or imperfect rural markets, such as credit and insurance markets in rural areas, migration has an important impact on household agricultural production, investment and labour allocation decisions; (c) Rural out-migration tends to exert a downward pressure on agricultural labour per capita. However, this does not automatically lead to reduced agricultural incomes because the loss in household labour may be, and often is, compensated by improvements in other areas, such as increased access to capital. The outcomes of migration therefore depend on the broader agro-ecological, economic, and institutional context; (d) Migration can significantly change the quality of human capital in rural areas, especially when outmigration of highly-skilled people is not compensated by resources, such as remittances becoming available for investment in health and education of children and youth;