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Sunday 12 August 2012

The rural population has limited access to land due to the rugged topography of many of the islands and inadequate land distribution. This has led to squatting becoming a dominant feature of the islands, and this “squatting culture” has had a socio-economic impact on rural societies. Rural in the Caribbean context refers to those areas of the society with relatively little commercial, industrial or official activities and with a strong agricultural base, or providing services to the urban areas. This contrasts with urban areas where economic wealth, political power and social services are concentrated. This imbalance between rural and urban areas is one of the factors that have given rise to rural-urban drift. Rural-urban drift is partly the result of the structural under-development that exists in the rural sector and the resulting inadequate rural livelihoods. Poverty and deprivation serve as “pushes” that encourage migration in search of what are perceived to be increased opportunities for economic advancement. Other factors are: 1. restricted access to land and productive resources, 2. limited employment opportunities, 3. low returns from self-employment activities, 4. inadequate skills training and low skill levels, 5. ageing farming population that is risk averse, 6. inefficient production technologies and marketing systems, resulting in low levels of productivity and subsistence-level production, 7. restricted access to credit to modernize the agricultural sector, 8. poorly developed infrastructure. Under-development is a complex phenomenon that has been the subject of much discourse. Underdevelopment has been attributed to social, economic and political factors that have influenced the human and physical resources of the society. Of importance to our discussion are the attitudes and lack of positive psychological dispositions of the rural population. Rural-urban migration is detrimental to the extent that young, better-educated people are the ones who leave. Some of these migrants prefer any type of job in the urban centres to being in the “country” and perceive that there are no opportunities for advancement in the “country”. Migration is also a reflection of the lack of entrepreneurship in the rural community and the failure of the education system to inculcate the spirit of enterprise needed to create opportunities wherever one happens to live. There is also a strong reluctance to form and maintain community groups that could then undertake initiatives that would enhance livelihood options.