Food security, Agricultural development
Basis for economic growth,
Develop agricultural sector and use surplus of capital and labor to invest in manufacturing sector.
Subsistence farming
Capital intensive options, less labor
Crop prices,
Palm oil
Domestic crops,
bad for climate very very profitable vs other common crops. Soybean rape, sunflower oil
Serves an important role in many many developing nations, being self sufficient in food.
Modernisation through industrialisation
Very low labour productivity
Low investment in agriculture, despite rapidly growing economies
With the rise of biofuel this is becoming a more attractive option
benefits of switching will only be felt be elite, and could drive inequality.
having a stable price is important as vast amount of disposable income goes on food in developing countries.
Climate change is damaging land,
Reduction in top soil and arable land.
If every country is industrialising, who is going to feed them all
Dependent on food imports
If agg productivity is low, how can nations ever hope to industrialise
land in Africa is shared between a family and as family gets bigger land per family gets smaller. Subdivision
Integrating of agg economy into national cash system
Enables consistent pricing for agg goods rather than bartered
Government policy mix must support both modern urban sector and the traditional rural sector. Chemicals etc.
Polices are often urban focused
High exchange rate to import capital for development. This weakens domestic business vs international market. making it cheaper to import food.
Gov could buy certain crops to support price for domestic farmers. This happens in Asia.
Lots of subsistence farmers only farm one crop, how can gov introduce cash crops.
Risky move to grow other crops but more valuable
Interest rates geared towards urban sector.
Invest in infrastructure to move resources/ crops around country to market more freely
Land reform needed to ensure farm land is appropriately sized. However land registers are weak in LDCs
Rural development
2/3 of worlds poorest live in rural areas.
Engaging in subsistence farming
Agriculture plays a passive supporting role in development
Provides low price food and man power to expanding industrial economy
Agriculture fuels industrial expansion
Agg has 4 functions
inputs for textile and food processing
export, foreign exchange contributions to allow countries to import capital
Rising rural incomes that increase demand for consumer goods
Factor market contribution; labour not needed on farms once productivity rises they can work in industry,
Trends in Agg productivity
Developing countries share of global agg GDP rose from 56-65%1980-2004
Low income countries can have up 90% of labor force in Agg
Price food spikes drove progress in solving world hunger to a stop
Poor Agg performance driven by lack of Gov support.
Investment in urban sector
Rapid industrialization via import substitution
Exchange rate overvaluation
Gov intervention in food prices 1980s more harm than good
Requiring farmers to sell to state at low prices to keep selling price low
As farmers lack collateral they can not gain credit , which means they can not afford to take children out of school which means poverty continues
Lacking insurance farmers can not afford to take risks
Green Revolution
Basis was to eliminate extreme poverty and hunger
Africa short of uncultivated land
Urbanisation has changed consumption preferences and rice is 5% up in Africa.
Regional rice production can only meet 2/3 of demand.
Development of yield increasing technology. increase labour demand by developing labour-using technologies
Technologies which are suitable for marginal areas
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As the poor rely heavily of labour for income we should invest in ways to increase labour demand.