EC207 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Rural Development, Sub-Saharan Africa, Agrarian System
Document Summary
Lesson 2. 4: agricultural transformation and rural development: explain how to increase per capita agricultural output and productivity in order to help rural areas with commercial agriculture and provide a sufficient supply of food for the country. The idea is to have integrated rural development. Identify the role of government with respect to agriculture and poverty alleviation. Market failures in the agricultural sector include environmental externalities and information asymmetries in product quality. Government policy is needed to deal with such market failures but is not limited to it. For instance, the government has a role in agriculture due to poverty alleviation as the majority of the world"s poor are farmers. Poverty is the biggest factor that prevents farmers from taking advantage of opportunities that could help them prosper. For all these issues, ngos (non-governmental organizations) provide help but there is a need for the government to step up and at least play a facilitating role to create the needed supporting environment.
