PATTERNS OF FARM AND NON-FARM HOUSEHOLD INCOME IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT OF BUTARITARI ISLAND, REPUBLIC OF KIRIBATI

Abstract

Farm and non-farm sectors are prominent activities and universal development tools for alleviating poverty and hardship in rural areas by fostering food security, sources of income, and employment for rural dwellers. Rural development is the approach to empower a specific group of people, poor rural women, and men, to generate their income for themselves and their children more of what they want and need. It typically involves the agricultural subsector and the non-agricultural subsector to streamline activities undertaken to achieve the aforesaid strategies and role of rural development. The study hypothesis affirms that household that engages more in nonfarm activities has a higher income than those who are involved in farming only. The research purposively samples 30 which includes farm and non-farm households using the Taro Yame formula and undertaking descriptive and frequency table to rigorously analyze the two sectors' household income and expenditure. The analysis clearly indicates that nonfarm households receive massive income in comparison with farm households and the reason for this phenomenon is that non-farm households are engaged more in fishing, handicraft, and livestock monetized activities. The issue that hinders the capacity of farming households is the lack of added value, land scarcity, unreliability transportation, and market accessibility which are beyond the farmer's capacity but require government intervention. Notwithstanding these issues, the study will then aim to find a solution to strengthen the farm household by stimulating non-farm activities as a complement to rural development. The findings have enabled the researcher to encourage the non-farm sector to supplement farm income and should be given more priority by the government in the situation of land scarcity and poor agricultural returns in rural development.