22 pages, Raising agricultural productivity in developing countries is often said to reduce poverty more than comparable growth arising from other sectors. This claim has frequently been based on casual theorising, rather than empirical evidence. Productivity growth generates additional income and must benefit someone, though not necessarily the poor. It is conceivable that most, or even all of the benefits might go to others. Using region-level data from Thailand, we study the relationship between agricultural productivity growth and rural poverty incidence. The dependent variable for our regression analysis is the annual rate of change in rural poverty incidence at the regional level between the years for which poverty data are available. Agricultural productivity is measured as the annual rate of change in regional total agricultural productivity, covering the same time intervals as the poverty observations, but lagged one calendar year. Other control variables include regional non-agricultural incomes and the real price of food. The estimated coefficient on the change in agricultural productivity is negative and highly significant, implying that agricultural productivity growth does reduce rural poverty, holding other variables constant, though not more so than non-agricultural sources of income growth. The poverty-reducing contribution of recent agricultural productivity growth has been small. The poverty-reducing effects of long-term drivers of agricultural productivity growth are also analysed, using simulations based on the estimated model.
Fliegel, Frederick C. (author), Kivlin, Joseph E. (author), and Shingi, Prakash M. (author)
Format:
Report
Publication Date:
1979
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 43 Document Number: B05226
Notes:
INTERPAKS, Urbana, IL: Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Illinois, 1979. (Staff paper, series S, rural sociology no. 79 S-12). 29 p., Examines the long-run effects on the diffusion of agricultural innovations, especially a key question in adoption and development research: Does a higher level of adoption of improved technology contribute to greater or lesser equality in distribution of social and economic "rewards" over time? Examination of this question is based on data drawn from interviews with 228 farm operators in Maharashtra, India. The first interview took place in 1967 and the follow-up interview in 1973. Analysis is focused on changes in equality of reward distribution among them over the six years. Results of the data indicate increased inequality in volume of production over the six years, not necessarily attributable to differences in utilization of agricultural technology. Inequalities in material well-being have decreased. Concludes that for this sample, and in the absence of radically improved production technology, the impact of induced change in production inputs and practices is such as to decrease the inequality in rewards over time. Analysis also covers access to information through extension contact and the mass media.
Gnaegy Suzanna (author / Winrock International) and Anderson, Jock R. (author / Winrock International)
Format:
Publication
Publication Date:
1991-06-30
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 114 Document Number: D11012
Notes:
World Bank Discussion Paper 126. Washington, D.C. 158 pages., Studies from a workshop. Includes evidence that research and extension had contributed to a decline in agricultural production. "There is a broad consensus about the many factors that have contributed to failures to boost land and labor productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Both technological options and agroecological and socioeconomic circumstances in this vast region are diverse, thus creating a complex matrix of impacts and explanations. The central explanation is that research and development activities, whether public or private, national or international, have produced innovations that farmers find variously unprofitable, too risky, or impossible to implement in a timely and useful fashion. These problems lead, in turn, to often declining agricultural productivity and a deteriorating agricultural resource base, particularly of soil and forest resources. Stepping back further from the farmers themselves to the institutions that are supposed to have assisted, the difficulties are several including the poor (often irrelevant for resource-poor farmers) siting of much past experimental and testing endeavor, inadequate and temporally inconsistent staff and budget support for national research and extension organizations.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 198 Document Number: D09670
Notes:
Warwick Economic Research Paper No. 744, Department of Economics, University of Warwick, England. 13 pages., Findings suggest caution in assessing research quality on the basis of journal prestige ratings.
