Agriculture and development: A brief review of the literature

After 20 years of neglect by international donors, agriculture is now again in the headlines because high food prices are increasing food insecurity and poverty. In the coming years, it will be essential to increase food productivity and production in developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and with smallholders. This, however, requires finding viable solutions to a number of complex technical, institutional, and policy issues, including land markets, research on seeds and inputs, agricultural extension, credit, rural infrastructure, connection to markets, rural non-farm employment, trade policy and food price stabilization. This paper reviews what the economic literature has to say on these topics. It discusses in turn the role played by agriculture in the development process and the interactions between agriculture and other economic sectors, the determinants of the Green Revolution and the foundations of agricultural growth, issues of income diversification by farmers, approaches to rural development, and issues of international trade policy and food security, which have been at the root of the crisis in agricultural commodity volatility in recent years.

► Agriculture in developing countries was helped by the Green revolution, and price and trade policies that do not tax the sector counterproductively. ► Major productivity increases depend on intensification, adoption of new technologies, good land markets and access to land, and environmental challenges. ► Effective cooperation between private sector, public agencies and NGOs will be essential. ► Food security means increased smallholder productivity, and social safety nets to mitigate chronic poverty are instrument to guarantee. Price stabilization policies are not promising.