Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Romanian rural economy has undergone massive changes. Increased urban unemployment has stimulated migration from towns to rural areas. Meanwhile, rural industries that were subsidised under communism have collapsed, causing rural unemployment....

The rural non-farm economy (RNFE) may be defined as comprising all those activities associated with waged work or self-employment in income generating activities (including income in-kind) that are not agricultural but which generate income (including remittances etc.) rural areas. In some...

The rural non-farm economy (RNFE) is of interest to governments, multilateral donor organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and development practitioners because of its increasing prevalence in both developing and transition economies. In many parts of the world, the number of poor...

The aims of this study are to improve understanding of the dynamics of the rural non-farm economy in providing employment and income diversification opportunities in Armenia, Georgia and Romania. The study aims to focus on improving the well-being and livelihoods of the rural population, through...

In this paper the findings of a survey conducted in June 2001 in Armenia are summarised. The aim was to gain insight into the nature of the rural non-farm economy (RNFE) in the country. For that purpose, 21 rural communities in 3 regions (called marzes in Armenian) were non-randomly selected....

The aim of this paper is to summarise the results of a non-farm micro- enterprise survey in rural and peri-urban Romania and to examine their impact on the development of sustainable rural livelihoods. As these firms operate in fixed locations and are therefore more easily located and observed,...

The radical changes that have occurred in the Romanian economy during the last decade have created new pressures on the country’s rural areas. Increasing industrial unemployment generated an urban-rural migratory flow of the population. The collapse of the agri-industrial processing and...