Agricultural Transformation - Rural Development - Lecture Slides, Slides of Human Development

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Agricultural Transformation and Rural Development

“ It is in the agricultural sector that the battle

for long-term economic development will

be won or lost.”

Agricultural Transformation and Rural

Development: Outline

• Integrated rural development
• Growth and stagnation of the agricultural sector since 1950
• Characteristics of agrarian systems in Latin America, Asia, and Africa
• Economics of peasant subsistence agriculture and transition to commercial farming
• Land reform and land markets
• Role of women in agriculture
• Case Study Docsity.com

Agricultural Transformation and Rural

Development

• How can agricultural output and productivity per capita be substantially increased that will benefit the small farmer and support the urban population?
• What is the process by which traditional farms are transformed into commercial farms?
• Why do traditional farmers resist change?
• Are price incentives sufficient to increase output?
• How can rural development be achieved?

Agricultural stagnation and Growth Since 1950: Output and employment, 1995

Region % of L force in Agriculture

Agricultural output as a % of GDP South Asia 64 30 East Asia 70 18 Latin America 25 10 Africa 68 20

Structure of Agrarian Systems

• Two kinds of world agriculture:
  • Efficient agriculture- high labour and land productivity
  • Inefficient agriculture- diminishing returns to labour

Latifundio-Minifundio pattern

• Latifundios - employment of 12 or more
• Minifundios - employment of 2 or less
• Family farms- employment of 4-12 workers
• Inefficient operation of latifundios
  • Inequality in land distribution

Subsistence Agriculture and Extensive cultivation

• Importance of subsistence agriculture in the village community
• Practice of shifting cultivation
• Right to common property such as land and water
• Historical forces restricting growth of output:
  • Traditional farming practices
  • Intensive and shifting cultivation
  • Scarce labour supply during peak season

Economics of agricultural development

• Three broad stages in the evolution of agricultural production:

Primitive stage- subsistence peasant farm

Mixed family agriculture- consumption+sale

Modern farm- specialized and commercial farming

Subsistence farming: Risk aversion and uncertainty

• Small farmer attitudes toward risk: Exploding the myth of irrational producers

Subsistence farming: Risk aversion and

uncertainty