Research on employment in the rural nonfarm sector in Africa

The author first gives a descriptive profile of the rural nonfarm sector on the basis of existing information, primarily from Nigeria. He then develops and explores the implications of a theoretical model of the rural nonfarm sector based upon Hymer-Resnick model but modified to consider: (a) the demand for rural nonfarm activity generated by urban and foreign consumers and (b) the effects of backward and forward agricultural linkages on the rural nonfarm sector, e.g., the potential demand for rurally produced farm inputs and for indigenous processing of agricultural outputs, respectively. The paper concludes with a proposed approach to research destined for use in generating detailed micro-data on rural nonfarm activities in Sierra Leone.