Agriculture: overview and modern practices

¶ … Agriculture and less developed nations. There is one reference used for this paper.

There are many issues facing underdeveloped nations today. It is important to examine if these countries should give up their agriculture sector in order to become a well developed nation.

Inverse Populations

In comparison to the rest of the world, underdeveloped countries have an inverse percentage of citizens who are involved in the farming industry. In 1993, "2.2 billion people in these countries were involved in agriculture as producers, while another 800 million lived in rural areas. There was also a strong inverse relationship between a nation's level of per capita income and the size of the rural population: 78% of the population in nations with per capita income below U.S. $400 per year were located in the rural sector, whereas in the 'upper middle income countries' with per capita income above $1,600 per year, the rural population accounted for 35% of the total population (Cypher, 331-365)." Although the countries experienced these inverse properties, there was little contribution to their GDP from the agricultural sector.

Urban Bias

Urban bias plays a major role in the neglect of agriculture in underdeveloped nations. This theory states that "agriculture receives relatively little attention in the implementation of most development strategies, due to a complex of social forces and processes operating both in the developing and in the developed nations (Cypher, 331-365)."

Many of the policy makers in these countries live in urban areas and have little contact with the rural areas. They are educated in Western ideas and have little or no experience with the agricultural sector. "Development is equated with industrialization, and industrialization has been predominately an urban phenomenon, which leads to neglect of the rural agricultural sector (Cypher, 331-365)."

Culture and Problems

Agriculture is often neglected due to cultural influences. Many of those involved in this sector are looked upon as "peasants, tribal peoples, indigenous people, or lower-level caste groups who often speak a different language or dialect (Cypher, 331-365)."

There are several factors which have a negative impact on the agriculture industry. There are few paved roads to transport the goods, creating a longer delivery time to the markets, and a high rate of spoilage. Erosion and deforestation are reducing the amount of cultivatable acreage, bad weather such as drought or flooding can devastate entire crops, and lack of irrigation systems in these areas can result in a shortened growing season.

Colonization and Primary Exports

Many underdeveloped nations were originally colonized by now developed, industrialized nations. These underdeveloped countries are largely mono-exporters as part of the colonial legacy, and this practice can have a negative effect on the economy if the primary export products are destroyed by weather or disease.

Attitudes Towards Change

Undeveloped countries are many times resistant to change for a number of reasons. There is "cultural resistance; many of the cultivators are poor and extremely risk adverse, feeling the risks outweigh the gains; and many of the peasants are unable to afford new production technology (Cypher, 331-365)."

Hidden Potential and High-Yield Seeds

Many economists debate the argument that there is "hidden potential in the agricultural sector, due to the assumptions concerning the ineffectiveness of peasant cultivation (Cypher, 331-365)."

Many landowners hoped that using high-yield variety of seeds would reduce poverty in underdeveloped countries, however "peasants are being driven out of rural areas due to a drop in prices as crop supplies increase (Cypher, 331-365)." Another downside to these crops is they are more prone to pests and disease, resulting in the destruction of most or all of the crop once infected. Peasants in these areas can not afford the risks, "which widens the rural income divide (Cypher, 331-365)."

Capitalist

The land in underdeveloped nations used to be considered a social status, but is now a capital asset and economists feel "the rate of return on the land must be maximized (Cypher, 331-365)." Capitalist may create additional dilemmas by "substituting capital for labor, and expelling peasants from small plots and their status as intermittent farm laborers. An increase in crops can result in displacement of peasants from their regions (Cypher, 331-365)."

Industrialization

There has been a link between "corporations of advanced industrialized nations and the agrarian sectors of less developed countries (Cypher, 331-365)" for over 40 years. Corporations are controlling cattle ranchers in some sectors, thus allowing the restaurant business in highly developed nations to impact good agricultural land, and lead to a "land intensive form of production. This industrialization contributes to deforestation, land degradation and environmental pollution- ranging from soil erosion to global warming (Cypher, 331-365)."