The bargain sector : economic restructuring and the non-farm sector in the Nigerian savanna

The present study challenges some of the presuppositions and generalizations evident in current African non-farm literature relating to the association of non-farm participation with poverty, and the impact of structural adjustment, education, gender, and rural credit institutions on patterns of non-farm participation. Amongst others it considers the role of non-farm activities in village livelihood strategies and occupational identities as well as in household welfare strategies, and the wider role of social networks in the development of the non-farm sector. It is based on fieldwork conducted in 1996-1997 in Nasarawan Doya, in northern Kaduna State, in the Nigerian guinea savanna, an agricultural surplus zone with a relatively commercialized peasant agriculture and a comparatively high level of non-farm participation. A major finding was that in the context of northern Nigeria, the pressures contributing to the expansion of the non-farm sector are linked to the need for capital, rather than to shortages of land or labour