Wage Employment and Rural Poverty Alleviation

This chapter discusses how the labor market allows workers in rural areas to access a greater spectrum of work opportunities, and at the same time allows the expansion of labor-intensive activities in sparsely populated areas. There is no doubt that the labor market, broadly defined, offers rural families an opportunity to generate cash income, diversify sources of income, allocate time during slack periods, or simply increase income when the marginal productivity of labor in own-farm activities is very low. It is also true that farm activities are often marked by seasonality, generating sharp variations in labor demand throughout the year, and difficult trade-offs for workers and employers. Naturally, a key ingredient that would reconcile the development of modern agriculture, labor absorption, and poverty alleviation in rural areas of Latin America is an active market for labor services.