Multidimensions of poverty for agricultural community in turkey: Konya province case

Poverty is a multi-dimensional global phenomenon. It encompasses health, housing, education, and social exclusion as well as simple incomes and expenditures. Multidimensional poverty is currently at the heart of many theoretical, empirical and institutional debates. The study was carried out in a rural settlement of Konya province in Turkey to determine the rural population’s poverty structure and to quantify different general characteristics of both the poor and non-poor population according to the poverty line (relative poverty based household income-monetary approach) and asset based wealth index approach. The results showed that, there was strong similarity between the income based approach and asset based wealth index approach for most factors. The source of income for the people in the study area was from non-agricultural sector and the material deprivation is also an important factor for wealth. It was found that non-agricultural income was higher in the wealth group (75-100%) than the other groups under study. The poor and low income households have high number of animals. These kinds of enterprises were mostly located in the high altitude areas which were not appropriate for crop production. It can be concluded in the light of investigated results that poverty is more prevalent in harsh geographical locations.