Abstract
It is a central theme of this book that an essential ingredient of sustained development and progress in peasant agriculture is its operation within a free enterprise economy — certainly as far as production and, in most cases, marketing of agricultural products is concerned.1 The main role of governments should be to provide conditions which are conducive to increasing agricultural productivity. Government should intrude, by appropriate policies and actions, to prevent undesirable distortions arising, for example, from employment-destroying technologies; an inequitable flow of the fruits of development to a limited group of beneficiaries; the monopsonistic domination of input delivery systems (of credit, fertiliser, extension advice, etc.) by a politically or economically dominant group; the appearance of external diseconomies, such as a changing farm structure which diminishes the size or threatens the smallholder sector, or the creation of landlessness on a significant scale, by reducing the access of small farmers to land; or other situations which have a seriously deleterious social, economic or environmental impact.
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Notes and References
W. W. Cochrane, Agricultural Development Planning: Economic Concepts, Administrative Procedures and Political Process, (Praeger, 1974). The author criticised Cochrane (in a review in Economic Development and Cultural Change vol.25 (1977) no.2) for putting forward this same theme; a criticism which is now regretted.
Uma Lele, ‘On Developing Rural Settlements’, Finance and Development, 1973.
R. Chambers, Managing Rural Development, (Uppsala: 1974).
V. W. Ruttan, ‘Integrated Rural Development Programmes: A Sceptical Perspective’, International Development Review, vol.17 (1975) no. 4. and I. Livingstone, ‘On the Concept of “Integrated Rural Development Planning” in Less Developed Countries’, J. of agric. Econs. vol.13 (1979) no.1.
G. D. Gwyer, Plantations and Development (mimeo) (1982), a paper read to the Tropical Agricultural Association: ‘I think it is no secret that integrated rural development has gone out of fashion. The World Development Report (1982) makes this clear. Integrated RD projects have tended to fail because of management constraints, a lack of tested agricultural packages and overly complex objectives requiring a degree of coordination among government agencies that has proved impossible to achieve in practice. There has been a confusion between what has been desirable and what is feasible’. Also World Bank, IDA in Retrospect, (Oxford University Press, 1982) p.37.
The World Bank, Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Agenda for Action, (Washington: 1981).
E. S. Clayton, ‘Programming Rural Employment Opportunities in Kenya’, International Labour Review, vo1.112 (1975) nos 2–3.
J. P. Gittinger, Economic Analysis of Agricultural Projects, 2nd edn (London: 1982).
I. M. Little and J. A. Mirrlees, Project Appraisal and Planning for Less Developed Countries (London: Heineman, 1974).
L. Squire and H. van der Tak, Economic Analysis of Projects (Washington: 1975).
I. Kornai, The Unreal Neo-Classical Basis for Project Planning (mimeo) (Rome: FAO, 1976).
A. Cairncross (ed.) Employment, Income Distribution and Development Strategy: Problems of the Developing Countries (London: 1976).
E. S. Clayton, Agricultural Employment Creation and Smallholder Rubber Production in Sumatra, Occasional Paper No.2 (Agrarian Development Unit, Wye College, 1975).
M. P. Collinson, Economic Considerations of Tree Crop Development on Smallholdings (mimeo) (Commonwealth Development Corporation, 1975).
Ibid.
J. Howell, ‘Assessing Management and Organisations for Agricultural Development Projects’, Institutions, Management and Agricultural Development, Occasional Paper No.3 (ODI, 1979).
Ibid.
Taken from E. S. Clayton, A Comparative Study of Settlement Schemes in Kenya, Occasional Paper No.3 (Wye College, 1978).
R. Chambers and J. Moris (eds) Mwea: An Irrigated Rice Settlement in Kenya, Part 2E (Munich: Weltforum Verlag, 1973).
Ibid. p.158.
Ibid. p.161.
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© 1983 Eric Clayton
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Clayton, E. (1983). The Project Approach to Development. In: Agriculture, Poverty and Freedom in Developing Countries. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17297-9_9
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