[1999] ESCOBAL, Javier; AGREDA, Víctor; AGÜERO, Jorge. «The determinants of labor allocation between farm and off-farm activities in rural Peru». En: AFSRE. International Symposium Proceedings, (15º: 1998 Nov. 29-Dec. 4: Pretoria, South Africa). Pretoria: AFSRE. p. 378-389.

This document shows that the importance for the Peruvian rural sector of activities that go beyond on/farm agricultural tasks has increased substantially, at least during the last decade.

At present 56% of rural households net income originates from these other activities, which suggests that these «complementary» activities can hardly be considered as such. The reasons for income diversification in the rural sector, seem to be multiple. If we characterized the behavior of agricultural producers according to the possession and/or access of different assets, we can use a logit model to outline a first approximation to the determinants of income diversification decisions. The results of this estimation and the findings obtained from two case studies done to complement this analysis showed that the access to public goods and services together with an adequate endowment of private assets (especially education and managerial abilities) can improve the quality of the links between the agricultural sector and its hinterland. In this context the improvement of road infrastructure in a country like Peru, is a key determinant to the reduction of marketing costs. Also, an improvement in the land titling and registering system as well as other public services like plant and animal health are key elements to increase the profitability of the agricultural sector and pave the way to improve its links with the agroindustry.