Poverty, agriculture and economic growth c.1

There are two basic economic issues facing the world today. The first is the widespread rural poverty in the underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America; the other is securing rapid growth of developing countries which for historical reasons have been left behind in the world race of industrialization and econo mic development over the last 200 years: The two are, of course, inter-related. But inter-connection does not necessarily imply inter causal relationship. The solution of one may lead to the resolving of other but it is possible that it may not do so. On the contrary, it may work the other way about: even a massive programme of industrialization carried out successfully over a period of time may fail to make a perceptible impact on the solution of the problem of rural poverty in a large country like India. That is a lesson that underdeveloped countries are now learning after painful experience of the last two decades.

The problem of rural poverty has to be attacked directly at the point where it exists. The remedy lies not in industrialization so much as in development of agriculture and expansion of productive activities and employment opportunities in rural areas. This realization has led, recently, the international financial institutions like the World Bank to reorient their lending and aid policies to underdeveloped countries in favour of projects which have a direct bearing on agricultural-cum-rural development. The problem of rural poverty has now acquired an urgency never felt before. It is already among the leading issues facing the world today.