The diversity and spatiality of rural livelihoods in southern Sri Lanka: Access, poverty, and local perceptions

Abstract

As a consequence of the increasingly multi-local and diversified nature of rural livelihoods, the production of wealth and poverty in the Global South is gradually delinked from local and agrarian resources. In order to understand what affects successful participation in non-farm livelihood activities, it is important, but surprisingly often neglected to incorporate local perceptions of change and of what factors affect the accessibility of key livelihood assets. Based on a guided questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, the article provides both a detailed account of the diversity and spatiality of livelihoods in two villages in southern Sri Lanka and an analysis of the factors affecting differentiated access to non-farm livelihood activities. One key finding is that the categories ‘farm’ and ‘non-farm’ are too general for a grounded evaluation of poverty-reducing livelihood activities, which casts some doubt on more optimistic findings based on large-scale survey data. Poor households participate in both farm and non-farm activities, illustrating a deep segmentation of the non-farm sector. Lack of social assets (e.g. networks and connections) was identified as most crucial for access to lucrative non-farm segments, since it also affected access to other assets.

Keywords:

• local perceptions
• non-farm diversification
• poverty
• rural livelihoods
• Sri Lanka

Acknowledgements

Robin Biddulph, Camilla Orjuela, Jerry Olsson, and two anonymous reviewers are thanked for helpful and critical comments on earlier drafts of this article. Adlerbertska forskningsstiftelsen and Sida (Styrelsen för internationellt utvecklingssamarbete) are thanked for providing funding, which made this research possible.