The Role of High-Value Agriculture in Capability Expansion: Qualitative Insights into Smallholder Cash Crop Production in Nepal, Laos and Rwanda

Abstract

High-value agriculture contributes to rural incomes, but does it also contribute to expanding “human capabilities” (Sen, Development as freedom, Knopf, New York, 1999) in a durable way? Through long-term qualitative fieldwork in three landlocked LDCs—Nepal, Rwanda and Laos—resulting in over 150 interviews, we found expansions of the three analysed capabilities: paid work, mobility and social relations. Yet, those improvements were characterised by precariousness: they were mostly not resilient in the face of the economic and environmental risks that high-value agriculture entails. The only example of a durable capability expansion was found in Nepal, where women claimed social spaces through collective organisation. All three study sites showed remarkable consistency in that the considerable risk involved in cash crop production was mainly borne by farmers and rural labourers. Research on mechanisms to guard against these risks at household or individual level is warranted.