Iraupeneko nekazaritza-ekonomia eta lurzoruaren narriadura

Abstract

There is a close link between the structural socio-economic characteristics of the peasant economic system found in the rural areas of Third World countries, and the degradation of one of its most fundamental natural capital, the agricultural soil. Here I undertake a qualitative description of the link by incorporating the “sustainable livelihood”and the “investment-poverty” concepts. I argue that both ideas should be taken into account when we talk about the broader concept of sustainable development applied to the natural resource based economies of the Third World. I also defend the viewpoint that peasant rationality, as different from the usual microecomic notion of homo economicus, should be the crux of any economic analysis of soil degradation in a peasant economic context.