World Food Policy WFP Volume 4, No. 2, Spring 2018 | Page 45

Facilitating Inclusive Rural Transformation in the Asian Developing Countries
Figure 5. Share of gross value of non-cereal products and rural
poverty rate (%) at $1.25/day
In addition to rural transforma-
tion within agriculture, RT through
expansion of off-farm employment
during the middle and later periods of
rural transformation is also important
for rural poverty reduction. The rates of
rural poverty deduction are generally in
accordance with the extent of off-farm
labor participation among the develop-
ing countries in Asia (Haggblade et al.,
2010; Misra, 2013; OECD, 2015; Huang
et al., 2008b). However, the overall in-
crease in off-farm employment for
rural labor forces is often not neutral.
Inclusiveness of rural transformation
in terms of gender, age cohort, region,
and indigenous vs non-indigenous also
differs among countries and within a
country in Asia.
RT, we divide all countries into differ-
ent categories of inclusiveness of rural
transformation. First, we use average
annual change in the share of non-ag-
ricultural GDP of the nine countries in
the studied periods as a dividing point
(0.57%) to divide all counties into two
groups, fast and slow ST countries. Sec-
ond, we follow similar approach to di-
vide all countries with fast or slow RT
based on two indicators, A—average
annual change in the share of non-cere-
al products in agricultural output value
(0.30%) and B—average annual growth
of agricultural labor productivity (2.22).
Third, the fast, moderate and slow rural
poverty reduction countries are defined
as the countries with average annual re-
duction of rural poverty rate by more
than 3%, between 1.6% and 3%, and less
3.3. Typology of rural
than 1.6%, respectively. Based on the
transformation
above rules, the categories of inclusive
Based on the speed of rural pover- rural transformation in the nine Asian
ty reduction and the speeds of ST and countries are presented in Table 2. The
41