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Impacts of Cash Transfer Programs on Rural Livelihoods: a Case Study in the Brazilian Amazon Estuary

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Abstract

We conducted a large household survey in a region of the Amazon estuary in Brazil to investigate the dependence of small farming households on government cash transfers and to identify the main factors that lead to better livelihood outcomes. The study examined the factors that contribute to heterogeneous household livelihoods and patterns of dependence on cash transfer programs. Multinomial logistic regression was used to evaluate household attributes affecting the level of dependence on cash transfers. Results indicate that households engage in a diversity of livelihood strategies, and vary in dependence on cash transfers. Lower levels of dependency are associated with higher levels of education and income from off-farm activities as well as larger property sizes and holdings in the várzea. Recognition of the causes and potential range of dependence on cash transfer programs adds decision-making capacity for policy makers seeking avenues to reduce dependence and increase program effectiveness.

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Notes

  1. Other cluster analysis approaches can also be used depending on the sampled households. However, in our case, K-means cluster (four clusters) shows similar results: nD has 169 households, lD has 95, mD has 229, and hD has 141.

  2. We use “no” cash transfer to describe the first quartile of Ts group for the simplicity and recognition of difference to other groups.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the International Development and Research Center of Canada (project: Socio-Cultural Adaptations of Caboclos in the Amazon Estuary of Brazil to Extreme Tidal Events), CNQp and CAPES-Proamazonia. Thanks to Walter Ubal of IDRC for his advice and assistance. We wish to thank a number of institutions and individuals in Brazil who made this work possible, including the Universidade Federal do Para. Special thanks to Hugo Castro and Fernando G. Rabelo, for their valuable work in the field collecting data through the household survey. We are also grateful to the many families and individuals in Abaetetuba who participated in the survey and shared their ideas.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Michigan State University, 1405 S. Harrison Road, Lansing, MI, 48910, USA

    Yue Dou

  2. Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada

    Peter Deadman & Derek Robinson

  3. Center for Advanced Amazonian Studies (NAEA), Federal University of Pará, Belém, Brazil

    Oriana Almeida

  4. Economics Department, Federal University of Pará, Belém, Brazil

    Sergio Rivero

  5. University of Paraíba Valley, São José dos Campos, Brazil

    Nathan Vogt

  6. Center for Environmental Research and Conservation, Columbia University, 1405 S. Harrison Road, New York, NY, USA

    Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez

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  1. Yue Dou
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Correspondence to Yue Dou.

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Dou, Y., Deadman, P., Robinson, D. et al. Impacts of Cash Transfer Programs on Rural Livelihoods: a Case Study in the Brazilian Amazon Estuary. Hum Ecol 45, 697–710 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-017-9934-1

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