12 results
18 - Adopting and Adapting Competition Policy: Asian Illustrations
- Edited by Hal Hill, Australian National University, Canberra, Majah-Leah V. Ravago, Ateneo de Manila University, James A. Roumasset, University of Hawaii, Manoa
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- Book:
- Pro-poor Development Policies
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 09 January 2024
- Print publication:
- 10 June 2022, pp 495-545
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Competition disciplines firms to subjugate other objectives to the pursuit of profits, thereby enhancing market efficiency. In his Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith (2008) describes competition as the “exercise of allocating productive resources to their most highly valued uses and encouraging efficiency”. Competition can also incentivize product variety and prices, thus enhancing consumer welfare. Moreover, it plays an important role in encouraging innovation, increasing productivity and propelling growth, thereby promoting a country’s sustained economic development.
Effective competition does not necessarily follow from the mere existence of many competing firms, however. Inappropriate government policies and firm conduct can impair competition and hinder its role in economic development. Weak institutions and rent-seeking by special interests may inhibit competition-enhancing reforms, restrict opportunities for innovation and diminish consumer welfare. This is where competition policy plays a role. Competition policy encompasses competition advocacy as well as laws and regulations concerning anticompetitive behaviour and production structures (Motta 2004). Competition law is a set of enforceable legal rules designed to prevent the abuse of market dominance and anticompetitive behaviour and to break down barriers to entry. Competition advocacy promotes a culture of competition as well as consumer interests (Clark 2005; Rakić 2018). Since effective competition can improve income distribution as well as innovation and productivity, competition policy can be critical in achieving inclusive growth and sustained development.
To investigate the impact of the adoption of competition law on long-term economic growth, we constructed a cross-country data set from 1975 to 2015. Countries may choose to adopt—or not adopt— competition law depending on their circumstances, including level of economic development, institutions and geography. Considering endogeneity and self-selection, we employ an endogenous switching regression, allowing for the interdependence of economic growth and adoption of competition law. Our analysis shows that adoption increased the growth rates in adopting countries but would have decreased growth in non-adopting countries.
In addition to correcting the abuses of anticompetitive behaviour, competition policy should be designed to promote innovation and productivity growth and be well coordinated with trade and domestic policies. We review these arguments, focusing on Asian countries. While the design and organization of competition authorities in Asia vary according to each country’s historical and economic situation, we focus on South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines to capture the characteristics of the competition law and authorities at various stages of maturity.
2 - Philippine Economic Development in Comparative Perspective: An Interpretative Essay
- Edited by Hal Hill, Australian National University, Canberra, Majah-Leah V. Ravago, Ateneo de Manila University, James A. Roumasset, University of Hawaii, Manoa
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- Book:
- Pro-poor Development Policies
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 09 January 2024
- Print publication:
- 10 June 2022, pp 29-72
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
The Philippine economy has often been characterized as a laggard, an “East Asian exception”, and a “Latin American economy in East Asia”. The forward-looking Asian Development Bank (ADB) publication, Asia 2050, (ADB 2011) classifies the country with the region’s slower growing economies, including Afghanistan, Nepal, Myanmar and North Korea. But as the eminent Filipino economist Felipe Medalla has observed, the Philippines is an “average” economy, in the sense that its long-term economic performance is similar to the global average. Over the period 1960–2018, for example, the country’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in real terms rose 2.9 times, exactly the same as that for the world as a whole. In other words, it is its deviation from the record of some very dynamic Asian economies that is distinctive; in global terms, its performance is not unusual.
Importantly, these averages conceal a great deal of variation over time. Most countries have episodes of faster and slower growth, booms and busts. This is certainly the case for the post-independence Philippine economy. In fact, in this paper we argue that three more or less distinct periods are observable. Although the periods are not precise, they are approximately:
1. From independence (1946) to the late 1970s: high initial expectations, slowing growth
2. From the late 1970s to the early 1990s: growing into a deep and extended crisis
3. From the early 1990s to 2019: recovery, rejoining the East Asian economic mainstream
To these may now be added the current period, 2020–21, of the COVID-19 pandemic-induced health and economic crisis, which introduces a sharp discontinuity into our analysis.
There are therefore periods of both modest and quite strong economic growth, together with two major crisis episodes—the macroeconomic and political crisis of 1984–86 and its aftermath, and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–21. Note also that the three main economic episodes correspond loosely, but not exactly, to the country’s political periods—that is, the democratic eras of 1946–72 and after 1986, and the authoritarian era of 1972–86, of Martial Law and its aftermath.
It is instructive to examine these episodes and draw inferences from them.
1 - Current Structure and Future Challenges of the Agricultural Sector
- from PART I - Setting up the Scenarios: Current Status and Potential Impacts of Climate Change to Philippine Agriculture
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- By Majah-Leah V. Ravago, Research Faculty at the Department of Economics, Ateneo de Manila University, and previously Assistant Professor at the School of Economics, University of the Philippines, Diliman., Arsenio M. Balisacan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Philippine Competition Commission, and former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and Director-General of the National Economic and Development Authority, Manila., Mercedita A. Sombilla, Assistant Secretary of the Regional Development Office, National Economic and Development Authority, Manila.
- Edited by Mark W. Rosegrant, Mercedita A. Sombilla
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- Book:
- The Future of Philippine Agriculture under a Changing Climate
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 29 May 2019
- Print publication:
- 30 November 2018, pp 3-70
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Summary
After a period of lacklustre performance in the 2000s, the Philippine economy improved considerably during 2010–14. The Aquino Administration (2010–16) has anchored a platform of sustainable and inclusive growth that incorporates fighting corruption, pursuing peace and order, and instituting governmental reform. Average yearly growth during 2010–14 was 6.2 per cent — the country's highest five-year average in forty years (peaking at 7.2 per cent in 2013). This pace of growth has put the country among the fastest growing developing economies in the world, resulting in unprecedented upgrades in credit and investment ratings. Progress, however, is slower in the social sector. Poverty is high and, so far, has responded sluggishly to economic growth. Underemployment also remains high at close to 20 per cent. Clearly, much work remains to be done.
Sustaining economic growth over the medium to long term requires structural transformation — especially involving a shift from low-productivity areas and sectors to high ones. Raising agricultural productivity is a key contributor. Although agriculture's share of the economy has continued to decline with economic development, enormous opportunities exist for income growth and poverty reduction in response to rapidly changing Asian food markets. Nevertheless, policy and governance constraints have limited Filipino farmers’ ability to seize these opportunities. Basic reforms are required to facilitate and strengthen agriculture's contribution to the Philippine economy.
This chapter provides an overview of the patterns, composition, policies, and institutional framework that have influenced the performance of the agricultural sector in recent years. The focus is the changing dynamics of agricultural supply and demand — as a whole and for key commodities — in the context of a growing economy, urbanization, and regional market integration. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the policy and institutional challenges inherent in enabling agriculture to form a key pillar in the country's pursuit of inclusive growth, poverty reduction, and sustainable development.
AGRICULTURE IN THE CONTEXT OF STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION
The decline of agriculture in response to economic development has been widely documented in the literature following the works of Clark (1940), Kuznets (1966), and Chenery and Syrquin (1975), using both cross-sectional and time-series data. The pattern is quite “uniform and pervasive” (Timmer 1988, p. 276), be it in socialist or capitalist countries in Asia, Latin America, or Africa.
1 - Economic Policy for Sustainable Development vs. Greedy Growth and Preservationism
- from Theme 1 - Sustainability Science for Resource Management and Policy
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- By Majah-Leah V. Ravago, University of Hawaiʿi at Mānoa, James A. Roumasset, University of Hawaiʿi at Mānoa, Arsenio M. Balisacan, University of the Philippines Diliman
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- Book:
- Sustainability Science for Watershed Landscapes
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 21 October 2015
- Print publication:
- 18 May 2010, pp 3-46
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Summary
ABSTRACT
Sustainability science emerged from the felt need to employ appropriate science and technology in the pursuit of sustainable development. The existing sustainability science agenda emphasises the importance of using a systems approach, stressing the many interactions between natural and human systems. Despite its inertia and avowed purpose of being practical and feasible, however, sustainability science has yet to embrace the policy sciences. In pursuit of this objective, we first trace the history of thought of sustainable development, including its definition and operationalisation.
Sustainable development encompasses sustainable growth and dynamically efficient development patterns. Two promising approaches to sustainable growth are contrasted. Negative sustainability counsels policy makers to offset any decrease in natural capital with at least the same value of net investment in produced capital. This sustainability criterion cannot determine how and how much to conserve natural capital nor how much to build up human and productive capital. Indeed, there is ambiguity regarding what prices to use in summing the values of diverse capital assets. To fill the void, we offer positive sustainability, which maximises intertemporal welfare while incorporating system linkages, dynamic efficiency, and intertemporal equity. This provides a solid and operational framework for sustainable growth. In addition, sustainable development must include the lessons from development theory, including how optimal patterns of production, consumption, and trade change with standards of living.
However, like Tolstoy's unhappy families, there are many pathways to unsustainable development. We describe two broad causes of unsustainable growth – rent-seeking and preservationism. We also illustrate patterns of unsustainable development by drawing on lessons from the Philippines. While specialisation is the engine of growth, fragmentation is the anchor. In addition to natural fragmentation from natural trade barriers in an island archipelago, rent-seeking promotes economic stagnation. Low economic growth in turn exacerbates population pressure and environmental degradation – the vicious circle of unsustainable development.
Message
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- By Arsenio M. Balisacan, University of the Philippines Diliman
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- Book:
- Sustainability Science for Watershed Landscapes
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 21 October 2015
- Print publication:
- 18 May 2010, pp xii-xiii
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Summary
Cynicism surrounds the concept of “sustainable development” and its approaches, for at least two reasons. Firstly, the concept, as practiced, is nebulous – meaning different things to different people, even among serious researchers and policy analysts. Indeed, many vociferous advocates of sustainable development have one thing in common – they tend to speak a language other than what we know as science. Secondly, evident success or sustained impact of approaches to sustainable development in many parts of the world is quite sparse and wanting.
A useful point of departure is thus to define sustainability science at the outset. As William Clark succinctly puts it, sustainability science is a field defined by the problems it addresses rather than by the disciplines it employs, much like health science and agricultural science. In particular, it is a field that seeks to, and I quote, “facilitate a transition toward sustainability – that is, improving society's capacity to use the earth in ways that simultaneously meet the needs of a much larger but stabilizing human population, … sustain the life support systems of the planet, and … substantially reduce hunger and poverty” (Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability, National Research Council Policy Division Board on Sustainable Development, 1999). Clark sees sustainability science “transcend(ing) the concerns of its foundational disciplines and focus(ing) instead on understanding the complex dynamics that arise from interactions between human and environmental systems.”
Bringing together the various sciences along with other dimensions of human thought to address sustainability's concerns, including the social goals of sustainable development and humanity's well-being, is, to say the least, exciting. This is indeed synergy of a 21st century kind!
On the other hand, the challenges facing this new field are huge. For the most part, sustainability science requires detailed information synthesized into new knowledge, enriching and even revolutionizing present paradigms and methods of research and policy design.
Foreword
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- By Arsenio M. Balisacan, Director, SEARCA
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- Book:
- Moving Forward
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 21 October 2015
- Print publication:
- 10 February 2010, pp xv-xviii
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Summary
Climate change is not just a buzz word. It is real. In fact, an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence supports this. Across the globe, we are beginning to experience the effects of climate change.
For the most part, climate change is man-made, mostly by industrialised countries. Since the advent of the industrial era, the rate of increase in temperature has been increasing. Because it is man-made, there is optimism that climate change can be managed. Managing it, however, requires nothing less than a concerted global action.
There has been much media coverage on the more dramatic threats and consequences of climate change, such as tsunamis, forest fires, floods, severe droughts, and other such calamities.
Meanwhile, what needs greater attention are the less dramatic, yet potentially more widespread and long-term consequences of climate change, such as decreasing agricultural yields, increasing water stress, continuing spread of infectious diseases, and persistent changes in the natural ecosystems. All of these consequences threaten the earth's biological species.
The tropics, which holds most of the world's biodiversity, has been identified as being the most vulnerable to climate change. While the projected negative impacts on biodiversity are well articulated, the contributions of biological resources in reducing the impacts of climate change on people and agricultural production have not been fully appreciated.
To address this gap, the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), in partnership with the ASEAN Center for Biodiversity, World Agroforestry Centre, Bioversity International, and Silliman University, organised a conference in Pasay City, Philippines on February 2008. This conference aimed at establishing the link between climate change and biodiversity in the context of agriculture and food security. The conference informed us on how different countries have adopted and mitigated the effects of climate change, and how parallel efforts on biodiversity conservation play an important role in this whole effort.
As a regional center for agricultural and rural development, SEARCA is keenly interested in knowing how Southeast Asian countries, particularly their rural communities, are coping with the effects of climate change.
9 - Poverty Reduction: Trends, Determinants, and Policies
- from Part B - Background Studies
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- By Arsenio M. Balisacan, University of the Philippines Diliman
- Edited by Dante Canlas, Muhammad Khan, Juzhong Zhuang
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- Book:
- Diagnosing the Philippine Economy
- Published by:
- Anthem Press
- Published online:
- 05 March 2012
- Print publication:
- 01 August 2009, pp 261-294
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Summary
Introduction
While economic growth in most East and Southeast Asian countries has been remarkably rapid during the past 25 years, the same cannot be said for the Philippines. The country's economic growth has barely exceeded the population growth rate, which has continued to expand relatively rapidly at 2.04% a year so far in the current decade (2000–2009). Economic growth quickened in the first half of the decade, but questions linger about its sustainability. Even at the 2004–2006 pace (5–6% per year), the Philippines has not come close to the growth trajectories of its neighbors. Thus, serious students of Philippine development contend that shifting the economy to a higher growth path—and keeping it there for the long term—should be first and foremost on the development agenda.
The country's disappointing performance in poverty reduction mirrors its growth performance. This is not unexpected. Every country that has chalked up significant achievements in poverty reduction and human development has also done quite well in securing long-term economic growth. Such a correlation is expected: economic growth is an essential condition for generating the resources needed to sustain investments in health, education, infrastructure, and good governance (law enforcement, regulation, etc.).
That achieving economic growth should be in the forefront of the policy agenda does not imply that nothing else can be done to lick the poverty problem. On the contrary, cursory evidence indicates that much can be done to enhance the poverty-reducing effects of growth.
Foreword
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- By Arsenio M. Balisacan, SEARCA
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- Book:
- Poverty Reduction through Sustainable Fisheries
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 21 October 2015
- Print publication:
- 17 November 2008, pp xii-xii
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Summary
Agriculture has traditionally been associated with the utilisation of land-based resources. However, large segments of the rural poor in Southeast Asia are dependent on living aquatic resources, whether as consumers, fishers in coastal and inland waters, or fish farmers. Policy research has only recently begun to renew its focus on fisheries, leaving a host of policy issues related to poverty reduction and sustainability relatively unexplored.
As a regional leader for agriculture and rural development, SEARCA has embarked on a collaborative research agenda for the fisheries sector, where many of the rural poor are dependent for their livelihood and food. To frame that agenda, the initial step was to conduct a set of expert reviews to synthesise what is known and not known, thereby highlighting important gaps in policy research. To this end, a conference participated in by top practitioners and researchers in the field of Southeast Asian fisheries was co-organised by SEARCA, WorldFish Center, and PCAMRD. Papers were presented and critiqued in discussions. Following the conference, the papers underwent further peer-review and technical editing.
This book contains the papers, including a synthesis of agenda for future research, presented during the conference. SEARCA offers this work as a handy reference material, providing insights to policy makers, researchers, and agricultural and rural development administrators to aid them in their decisionmaking processes.
9 - Why Does Poverty Persist in the Philippines?
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- By Arsenio M. Balisacan, University of the Philippines
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- Book:
- Whither the Philippines in the 21st Century?
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 21 October 2015
- Print publication:
- 23 November 2007, pp 202-221
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Addressing the widespread poverty problem is the single most important policy challenge facing the Philippines. Not only is poverty high compared with other countries in East Asia, but also its reduction is so slow that the country has become the basket case in the region.
Proposals peddled to address the poverty problem are plenty — and they keep on growing. At one end of the spectrum are proposals contending that the root of the problem is simply the lack of respectable economic growth. Putting the economy on a high-growth path is prescribed as all that is needed to beat the poverty problem. At the other end are proposals asserting that the poverty problem is nothing but a concrete manifestation of gross economic and social inequities. Redistributing wealth and opportunities is viewed as the key to winning the war on poverty. A variant of such proposals holds that economic growth does not at all benefit the poor. Focusing on growth rather than on redistributive reforms is seen to exacerbate inequities, which could lead to the further erosion of peace and social stability. Between these extremes are views that consider economic growth as a necessary condition for poverty reduction and recognize that reform measures have to be put in place to enhance the participation of the poor in growth processes. Most advocates of poverty-reduction ideas, including proponents of the so-called “pro-poor growth”, belong to this mold, although not necessarily sharing common ground on what, conceptually and operationally, constitutes pro-poor growth processes.
How do these proposals stand in relation to evidence and policy research? What are facts and what are fancies? Given the country's fiscal bind, what policy levers can be expected to generate high returns in poverty reduction?
This chapter attempts to answer these questions. It does this by examining the Philippine experience in poverty reduction from an “international” perspective. The next two sections characterize the nature, pattern, and proximate determinants of poverty reduction during the past twenty years.
5 - Poverty and Vulnerability
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- By Arsenio M. Balisacan, University of the Philippines Diliman, Nobuhiko Fuwa, Chiba University
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- Book:
- Reasserting the Rural Development Agenda
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 21 October 2015
- Print publication:
- 04 July 2007, pp 121-158
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
By global standards, Asia has done remarkably well in both economic growth and poverty reduction during the past thirty years. However, this performance has not been uniform across sub-regions and countries. Indeed, even within a country, there is a typically large diversity in income growth rates and poverty reduction outcomes across household groups, locations, or socio-demographic attributes. In part, the diversity may reflect various patterns of social stratification arising from the effects of a combination of market imperfections, initial conditions, and political-economy dynamics.
In this paper, we distill not only the experiences, key research issues and findings on the nature and causes of poverty and vulnerability, but also the policy lessons emerging from the rapidly expanding literature on growth, poverty, vulnerability, and inequality in Asia. Our focus is on rural Asia. In Section II, we provide an overview of the vast number of macro-level studies exploring the connection between economic growth and poverty reduction. In Section III, we examine the evidence on the link between agricultural performance and poverty reduction. We then selectively review — in Sections IV and V — recent developments in micro-level studies on poverty dynamics and vulnerability. While the macro-level studies make us understand policy questions related to long-term development processes, the micro-level studies draw insights from the heterogeneity and diversity of economic agents and focus directly on behavioural mechanisms leading to poverty. We then conclude, in Section VI, with policy lessons and implications drawn from the review.
GROWTH AND POVERTY REDUCTION
Asia's gross domestic product (GDP) growth has consistently outpaced those of other regions of the world in the past thirty years. The region's economic growth rate averaged about 4.0 per cent per year, while the corresponding figures for developed countries and the world were about 2.6 per cent and 2.7 per cent, respectively. The growth accompanied a historic rapid poverty reduction, especially in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Between 1990 and 2001, the number of people living on less than a dollar a day fell by about 129 million. Poverty incidence in East Asia dropped from 31 to 12 per cent, while that in South Asia fell from 41 to 29 per cent. At these rates, the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving by 2015 the proportion of people whose income falls below one dollar a day looks attainable for Asia.
1 - Challenges and Policy Options for Agricultural Development – Overview and Synthesis
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- By Arsenio M. Balisacan, University of the Philippines Diliman, Nobuhiko Fuwa, Chiba University
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- Book:
- Reasserting the Rural Development Agenda
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 21 October 2015
- Print publication:
- 04 July 2007, pp 1-32
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
This book attempts to take stock of the evolution of theoretical and empirical knowledge about economic development, mainly focusing on agricultural and rural development, and drawing mainly (if not exclusively) on experiences in Asia. There have been other such stock-taking exercises in development economics (e.g., Meier and Stiglitz 2001), but this book is somewhat unique in its exclusive focus on agricultural and rural development in Asia.
In the 1970s, agricultural and rural development occupied the centre stage of the economic development debate. Amid the increasing sense of food and resource scarcity, as reflected in rising commodity prices, investment in rural development was ranked top priority among development projects (see Chapter 8 by Barker and Rosegrant). The Green Revolution was in its early stages, and major efforts were underway to deliver complementary inputs such as fertiliser and subsidised credit, culminating in the Integrated Rural Development schemes. The impact of the Green Revolution (especially on small farmers) was then being fiercely debated.
After the 1980s, however, the perceived importance of the agricultural sector in the international development circle waned dramatically. Investments in rural development and agricultural research and development (R&D) declined sharply (see Barker and Rosegrant, Chapter 8). Correspondingly, Roumasset (Chapter 2) notes that the economics of agricultural development “has arguably been in decline,” and is “twice marginalized in the academe.” Nevertheless, Asia still accounts for about 60 per cent of the world's 1 .1 billion poor, and the majority of them are found in rural areas (Balisacan and Fuwa, Chapter 5). In addition, we take note of the following worldwide developments that are wielding tremendous effects on agriculture, to wit: the increasing globalisation, along with rapid changes in marketing systems, which is offering farmers (especially small farmers) in the region the opportunities and enormous challenges for greater competitiveness (Reardon and Timmer, Chapter 12); the Gene Revolution — characterised by rapid advances in agricultural biotechnology, driven mainly by the private sector — which is taking over the Green Revolution (Pingali and Raney, Chapter 6); and the increasing awareness and concerns for environmental problems, such as deforestation (Otsuka, Chapter 1 0; Coxhead, Chapter 11) and water scarcity (Barker and Rosegrant, Chapter 8), which present additional challenges for agricultural and rural development policy formulation.
Preface
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- By Arsenio M. Balisacan, University of the Philippines Diliman, Nobuhiko Fuwa, Chiba University
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- Book:
- Reasserting the Rural Development Agenda
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 21 October 2015
- Print publication:
- 04 July 2007, pp xi-xiv
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Summary
This volume is the final product of efforts to revisit familiar themes and controversies that have played a crucial role in shaping the way we view rural development. We are in deep gratitude to all the colleagues and organisations that have assisted us in the different stages of the project.
The idea for this volume drew inspiration from a SEARCA initiative in 1979, which, in cooperation with then Agricultural Development Council (ADC) of New York (now Winrock International), resulted in the publication of a book entitled Risk, Uncertainty and Agricultural Development, featuring such respected authors as Hans Binswanger, Jean-March Boussard, Robert Evenson, David Newberry, James Roumasset, Inderjit Singh, and Joseph Stiglitz, to name a few. Now, three decades and many global changes after, SEARCA has found it timely and relevant to revisit their views of agricultural development vis-à-vis the current situation in the region. The main objective is to draw up policy lessons from the major ideas and paradigms that have influenced academic and policy thinking in agricultural and rural development in the past 30 years.
SEARCA began formulating the plan for a conference as early as the first quarter of 2004, with the end goal of producing this book. It was decided that the conference would mark the beginning of the celebration of SEARCA's 40th Anniversary in November 2006. We sought the assistance of Emmanuel Esguerra in drafting a concept paper for the conference. We are thankful to him for the initial discussions and thoughts he shared with us toward this volume.
By bringing together an international group of acknowledged research scholars in agricultural and rural development in dialogue with policymakers from the Asian region, the conference, held in November 2005, provided a venue for articulating policy options on emerging development issues in the region. The discussions focused on several thematic and issue papers on agriculture and rural development, food security, population and environment, institutions, and biotechnology, among others. The papers presented were revised accordingly, taking into account the suggestions from the editors and discussants. The resulting volume attempts to identify the rural development challenges in the next 10 years and draws up possible directions for future academic and policy research.