Agriculture and rural development in a globalizing world: Challenges and opportunities
This book published by Routledge addresses the challenges of reorienting agriculture and rural development in an environment of rapid structural transformation, globalization and urbanization. It provides a comprehensive review and assessment of the multi-faceted nature of agriculture and rural development, particularly in the developing world. The book is designed around five thematic parts. The first theme, Agricultural Intensification and Technical Change, examines reasons for low adoption of modern productivity-enhancing inputs in Africa; the relation between farm size and productivity; the options for enabling smallholders to gain access to yet unexploited lands; and the efficiency of subsistence farmers. This is followed by the part focusing on agricultural policies and investments, and how they are related to observed patterns of agricultural and economic development. This includes chapters on sectoral structure of African economies; the predictions and policy relevance of agricultural evolution theory; policies on land tenure and land markets; food price policies; and institutional constraints with respect to technology research, development and dissemination. The third part discusses community and rural institutions, like index-based insurance; voluntary water trading; and community-driven development approach. In addition, the linkages between agriculture, health and nutrition are discussed with an example of India. The last part of the book discusses the developmental impact and future prospects of two global institutions: CGIAR and the World Bank.