Agriculture and development

All too often, rural development is seen as a self-contained phenomenon. However, from a holistic perspective, the pertinent issue is the role of the rural areas in the overall development of productive capacity. Clearly, there needs to be some kind of general balance between urban and rural development and in particular between industry and agriculture in development (as well as, of course, a balance between these and other areas of economic significance – energy, infrastructure, education, etc.). In the integrated international economy, this balance may well have to be measured within a unit that is wider than a single social formation where international trade may enable the need for agricultural development to be bypassed. For the purposes of conceptual discussion, I assume, however, that agriculture has a necessary role in developing the productive capacity of a social formation. This issue has been conceptualised as the ‘Agrarian Question’, and refers to the way in which agriculture relates to the needs of industry and the production of new means of production. Expanding upon points made by Beckford (1969: 142–3) and Halliday (1979: 126–34), agriculture's role in development includes providing food and raw materials, subsidising industrial development through surplus transfer, serving as a market for industry with regard to agrarian inputs and consumer manufactures and releasing labour-power for industrial development, or productively absorbing labour-power where industry is unable to do so.