Determinants of household off-farm labor activity: the case of six villages in Cimanuk River Basin, West Java, Indonesia

Abstract

<p>According to modernization theorists, the development processes in developing countries should follow the development pattern of the now-developed countries. One of the development characteristics is the sectoral movement from agriculture to industry, services, or other nonagricultural sectors, in terms of the share of the economy and labor absorption. It remains unclear whether this movement can be best understood at the macrolevel, where the unit of analysis is the nation-state, or at the microlevel, where analysis is at the local level. By considering off-farm labor activities as an indicator of the movement, the study identified modernization processes at the village level with the household as the unit of analysis. Then, determinants of off-farm labor activities were analyzed;Overall, the sectoral movement was not prevalent in the villages studied. The findings show that there is no significant difference in the intensity of off-farm labor activities between households whose main occupation is in agriculture and those in nonagriculture. However, the household dependency ratio, the proportion of assets considered to be productive, and the proportion of expenditures for food were significantly and positively related to off-farm labor activities; while landholding, household head's age, and the number of household members were negatively related to it. These findings indicate that the households' orientations were more directed toward fulfilling their basic needs rather than toward other activities that might indicate modernization. A relatively heavy burden of the households, especially in terms of the number of members to be supported, seems to be the main reason for this orientation. It is concluded that the 'survival motivation' of the household is more dominant than the 'achievement motivation.'</p>