Abstract
Agricultural development is the major driver of rural transformation in Asia, and the Green Revolution is the flagship of agricultural development. It is characterized by the continuous development of improved seed varieties and their dissemination. The Green Revolution in Asia is focused on three major staples: rice, wheat, and maize.
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1 Overview
Agricultural development is the major driver of rural transformation in Asia, and the Green Revolution is the flagship of agricultural development. It is characterized by the continuous development of improved seed varieties and their dissemination. The Green Revolution in Asia is focused on three major staples: rice, wheat, and maize. Following the Green Revolution, the yield and production of these three staples rose, and their prices declined, facilitating the move of resources away from the farm and into the nonfarm sector (ADB 2020). The shift of household livelihood activities away from the farm and into the nonfarm sector, in turn, has been observed to be the major source of household income growth and poverty reduction (Otsuka et al. 2009).
In Asia, agricultural development is an evolutionary process, and Africa appears to be following in the same footprints. This volume aims to explore the many pathways of agricultural development in Asia and assess to what extent these pathways have been pursued in the context of contemporary Africa.
This book’s main finding is that, indeed, Africa is following in Asia’s trail. The common pathways to agricultural development are borrowed technology from abroad; adaptive research in rice farming (modern seeds, fertilizer, and mechanical technologies); secured property rights on natural resources; adoption of ICTs; investments in human capital, including training; and spread of high-value agriculture. Like in Asia, these pathways could serve as expressways of African agricultural development and overall development.
Topics in this volume are grouped into four themes: (1) Green Revolution in Asia and Africa, (2) Land Tenure and Sustainable Natural Resource Management, (3) Transformation of the Rural Economy, and (4) Emerging Issues in Agriculture. This last chapter has two remaining sections. The next section summarizes important findings for each theme, and the last spells out the policy recommendations.
2 Green Revolution in Asia and Africa
In Asia, the Green Revolution rested on a high input and high output principle and was restricted to three crops—rice, wheat, and maize. Here we focus on rice, characterized by a large stock of transferable technology from Asia and a new crop that is gaining importance in Africa.
The Green Revolution in rice in Africa appears to have started to evolve with technologies that have been imported from Asia. We compare the Green Revolution experience of Central Luzon, which is the frontliner of the Green Revolution in the Philippines (Chap. 3 by Kajisa et al. in this volume), with that of Africa in Kenya (Chap. 5 by Njagi and Mano in this volume), Tanzania (Chap. 6 by Nakano and Magezi in this volume), and Madagascar (Chap. 7 by K. Takahashi in this volume). Central Luzon sample sites include lowland rainfed and irrigated ecosystems. Kenya’s site is the Mwea Irrigation Scheme, where all farms are irrigated. The Tanzania ones are rainfed and irrigated ecosystems in three major rice-growing regions in the country, namely, Morogoro Region, Shinyanga Region, and Mbeya Region. Study sites in Central Luzon, Kenya, and Tanzania have fairly similar agro-ecological conditions, which are important determinants of the uptake of modern rice technology.
2.1 Irrigation and Modern Rice
The availability of irrigation is critically important in the adoption of modern rice varieties, as adoption is often faster in irrigated ecosystems than in rainfed ones. The yields of modern rice varieties are also higher under irrigated conditions, a phenomenon observed in both Central Luzon and Tanzania.
Most of the modern rice varieties in the Philippines were developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) since its establishment in 1960, and by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PHILRICE) since its establishment in 1986. Both institutions have played a particularly important role in adaptive research because early technologies in rice breeding were imported from advanced countries whose agro-ecological conditions are different from tropical Asia. Pingali (Chap. 2 in this volume) mentioned that the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) in the Philippines and other Asian countries, such as China and India, have served as important conduits for accessing and adopting borrowed technology from abroad. The Philippine government established a strong extension system that facilitated the dissemination of newly-released seeds to farmers. PHILRICE also offers training and workshops for farmers on the proper use of new rice technology. Farmer-to-farmer exchange of seeds and information on new technology is another enhancing factor in the spread of new rice technology.
In northern Bangladesh and three eastern states in India (Assam, Odisha, and West Bengal), there has been a steady increase in the diffusion of submergence-tolerant rice varieties (Sub1 series) in response to the rising incidence of flooding (Yamano, Chap. 4 in this volume). The Sub1 series released in Bangladesh was developed by IRRI and the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, while the most popular Swarna-Sub1 was developed in India. Applying DNA fingerprinting, Yamano found that farmers could not accurately identify the seeds of the rice varieties, raising a question on the accuracy of the reported adoption rate of submergence-tolerant rice varieties in Bangladesh.
The most popular modern rice in Kenya is improved Basmati, a cross-bred between Basmati (a traditional rice) and high-yielding modern rice varieties. Improved Basmati is of lower quality but has a higher yield than the original Basmati rice grown widely in India and Pakistan. In Tanzania, the most popular variety is SARO 5, a semi-aromatic rice developed by a government agricultural research institute in Dakawa (ARI Dakawa) and released in 2002. SARO 5 is a cross-bred between Supa/Pyongyang 8 from North Korea and Supa/Subarimati originally from IRRI. Clearly, there is adaptive research in African rice with technology coming from Asian countries and IRRI.
2.2 Fertilizer
In Central Luzon, nitrogen applied to rice fields started at 9Â kg/ha on the eve of the Green Revolution in 1966, and it rose steadily over time until it reached the recommended level of 100Â kg/ha in 1987 and continued at that level until 2021. In Central Luzon, rice traders and landowners who advance credit to the farmers for fertilizer purchases have paved the way for increased use of chemical fertilizer. In Kenya, fertilizer application is, on average, 140Â kg/ha of NPK in 2011 (which is higher than those applied in farms in India, the Philippines, and Bangladesh) and declined subsequently in 2016 and 2018. This is because some farmers left their credit cooperative, which was their main source of credit for fertilizer. Chemical fertilizer usage per hectare in Tanzania increased from 8.8 to 24.2Â kg/ha in rainfed areas and from 35.4 to 89.6Â kg/ha in irrigated ecosystems from 2009 to 2018.
2.3 Machines
In Central Luzon, the proportion of sample farmers using tractors increased between 1966 and 1994 because of the development of the tractor rental market and the increasing maintenance cost of draft animals. In Central Luzon, the early tractors were the 70-horsepower four-wheel types replaced later by the two-wheel power tillers when large-scale irrigation infrastructure opened up. Tilyadora (huge threshing machines) were used before the implementation of land reform in 1972 to easily monitor the sharing of output between landlords and tenants (Hayami and Kikuchi 1982). Following the successful implementation of the land reform program, farmers started using the portable axial-flow thresher developed and released by IRRI. The utilization of tractors and threshers accelerated in the mid-1980s because of rising wages. The combine harvesting-threshing machine was introduced around 2015, and by 2021, nearly 100% of sample farmers in Central Luzon were adopting the combine because of a severe shortage of hired labor.
In the Mwea Irrigation Scheme in Kenya, four-wheel tractors were used for rotavation, and draft animals were used for leveling the rice field. While Kenya still has large grazing lands to maintain draft animals, tractorization in Kenya took place because of rising wages. The high proportion of farmers using tractors in Mwea was because of the National Irrigation Authority and because tractor services were provided on credit by a farmer’s cooperative.
The turnover of the Mwea Irrigation Scheme management to the farmers’ cooperative stimulated the entry of rice traders and rice millers into the market. Some entrepreneurial millers visited China in the early 2010s and learned about modern milling technologies. Most importantly, the destoner module removes small stones and other impurities from dried paddy during milling. Large-scale milling machines were used initially, but smaller modern machines have become widely adopted since the 2010s. Because of the advent of modern milling machines, the quality of rice varieties produced in Mwea improved and facilitated the transformation of the rice value chain. Mwea’s rice started to be sold in urban supermarkets and competed with imported Asian rice varieties. Clearly, the development of the rice value chain in Mwea results from the transfer of modern milling technology from China.
2.4 Improved Farm Management Practices
In Central Luzon, improved agronomic practices have been widely used, such as bunding, straight-row planting, and transplanting. Direct-seeding, which replaces transplanting as a labor-saving technique, started to rise because of mounting wages and the introduction of an effective herbicide called machete.
In the Mwea Irrigation Scheme in Kenya, almost all the farmers adopted transplanting in rows. In Tanzania, the adoption rate of transplanting in rows was higher in irrigated ecosystems (increasing from nearly 30% in 2009 to 43% in 2018) than in the rainfed ecosystem (about 6% in both years). Training had a positive and significant impact on the adoption of plot leveling and transplanting in rows. Nakano and Magezi (Chap. 6 in this volume) reported that farmers who received training increased their adoption rates of improved bunding and straight-row planting relative to those who did not. However, those who did not undergo training were able to catch up, indicating the high possibility of farmer-to-farmer knowledge spillover effects, particularly in the irrigated ecosystem.
In Madagascar, the system of rice intensification (SRI) is widely used. The SRI rests on low-input and knowledge- and management-intensive practices. K. Takahashi (Chap. 7 in this volume) presents an exhaustive review of literature on the impacts of SRI on rice yield and found that in a large number of cases, SRI promotes yield growth even with little use of chemical fertilizer, which is quite different from the high-fertilizer and high-yield principle of the Asian Green Revolution.
2.5 Development of Markets
Fertilizer, rice, and credit and land markets have evolved dynamically with the onset of the Green Revolution. In Central Luzon, fertilizer and rice markets were already established before the Green Revolution, while machine repair shops proliferated after the Green Revolution. The number of rice traders, who advance credit to farmers for fertilizer, increased after the Green Revolution. The same phenomenon was also observed in the Mwea Irrigation Scheme (Njagi and Mano, Chap. 5 in this volume). The fertilizer market has started to develop because of the rising demand for fertilizer and the presence of traders who provide credit for fertilizer. Just like in the Philippines, a large number of farmers are engaged in tied-in-credit with traders. Nakano and Magezi (Chap. 6 in this volume) reported the presence of large-scale rice milling companies in Tanzania, indicating that farmers have been selling their marketable surplus to the market.
Land markets in the Philippines were generally suppressed by land reform laws by making share-tenancy illegal and prohibiting transactions for lands obtained under the land reform. One major feature of the Philippine land reform program is the conversion of share-tenancy to leasehold-tenancy and the fixing of leasehold rent and annual amortization fees. When rice yield rose in the 1970s following the diffusion of seed-fertilizer technology, the fixed leasehold rent and amortization payments diverged substantially from the economic rent accruing to the service of the land. Thus, a gap between actual land rent and true economic rent was created. This gap accrues to leasehold-tenants and amortizing owners who were converted from the status of share-tenants by the land reform program. Some opportunistic leasehold-tenants and amortizing owners hired a share-tenant in their plots, asked them to pay the share-tenancy rate, and reaped the economic rent created by the land reform law (Hayami and Kikuchi 1982). Sub-tenancy was illegal but has evolved because of the land reform and the diffusion of modern rice varieties.
Kijima and Tabetando (Chap. 8 in this volume) reported that land rental markets have also evolved in Uganda and Kenya and made land allocation more efficient and equitable. The land is rented out from less productive to more productive farmers and from land-abundant to land-constrained households.
2.6 Rice Yield
In 1966, rice yield was about 2 tons per ha (tons/ha) in Central Luzon when traditional varieties were planted. Yield rose to 2.5 tons/ha in 1979 when MV1 was adopted and rose significantly to more than 4 tons/ha between 1986 and 1999 when the pest- and disease-resistant MV2 became popular. According to PHILRICE statistics, rice yield in Central Luzon was about 4 tons in 2001 and rose to 5.2 tons in 2021 when hybrid rice varieties were disseminated.
In the Mwea Irrigation Scheme in Kenya, rice yield was reported at about 5 tons/ha in 2011, 5.4 tons in 2016, and 6.2 tons in 2018. This is higher than those reported in Central Luzon, possibly because fertilizer application was higher in Kenya at 140 kg/per ha in 2011. In addition, water management under the farmers’ cooperative has led to more enhanced water access and higher yield. Increased mechanization of land preparation might also have contributed to the rise in yield because of improved soil aeration. In the irrigated ecosystem in Tanzania, rice yield rose from 3.7 tons per ha in 2009 to 4.2 tons in 2018 because of increased fertilizer application and higher adoption of better farm practices, such as bunding, leveling, and straight-row planting.
2.7 Lessons from the Asian Green Revolution and the Way Forward
This volume has presented evidence that the Asian-style Green Revolution has been evolving in Africa. First, the ‘pre-conditions’ for the take-off of the Asian Green Revolution are now apparent in Africa. There is high population growth on closed land frontiers, and there is the availability of a huge stock of transferable mature rice production technology from Asia. Second, adaptive research appears to be ongoing, exemplified by improved Basmati rice in Kenya and SARO 5 in Tanzania, whose genetic materials and breeding techniques came from Asia. These two varieties were developed to suit Africa’s local agro-ecological conditions. Third, there is an acceleration in the adoption of modern rice varieties and fertilizers in major rice-growing areas in Africa, indicating a response to increasing land scarcity. Fourth, improved farm management practices, such as bunding, leveling, and straight-row planting, characteristically Asian, are increasingly adopted. This also applies to SRI, which is intrinsically African. Fourth, mechanization is ensuing with machines, such as power tillers, threshers, and milling machines currently used in rice farms in Asia. All of these lead to the decline in the yield gap between Asia and Africa. In fact, rice yield in the irrigated ecosystem in major rice-growing regions in Tanzania is comparable to Central Luzon, and yield in Mwea is even higher. Finally, markets in the rice sector have evolved, responding to increased demand for modern inputs and higher marketable surplus. The rice value chain has been modernized in Kenya to cater beyond subsistence production to a wider market that can compete with Asian rice.
Pingali (Chap. 2 in this volume) reported that the Green Revolution had two major positive impacts. First is the rapid increase in yield that resulted in an increase in global food production and declining food prices. Second, the Green Revolution kickstarted the structural transformation process, which served as the main driver of Asia’s income growth and poverty reduction.
But there are limits to the Asian Green Revolution (Pingali, Chap. 2 in this volume). First, it focused on a limited set of crops—rice, wheat, and maize—crowding out nutrition-rich coarse grains, such as millets, sorghum, and pulses with higher nutritional content, which could potentially solve micronutrient malnutrition among the poor. Second, it is focused on irrigated tracts or regions with high rainfall and low agroclimatic risks, leaving out areas with unfavorable production environments. Finally, there are unintended consequences, such as environmental degradation due to injudicious use of inputs, such as pesticides and fertilizers, and the looming water crises.
3 Land Tenure and Sustainable Natural Resource Management (NRM)
In both Asia and Africa, secured property rights are by far the most important factor in enhancing the productivity of cropland and in the uptake of sustainable NRM practices in forestlands, timber resources, soil, and water.
For cropland, land tenure policies are important in strengthening work incentives and enhancing land access for the land-poor and landless tenants. Holden (Chap. 9 in this volume) reviewed real-world land tenure policy interventions and found that not all policies were successful. The Chinese household responsibility system, land titling in Thailand and Kenya, and low-cost land registration and certification successfully strengthened landholders’ property rights and tenure security. While the ‘land-to-the-tiller’ program was intended to be distributive, evidence indicates that landowners managed to evict tenants to assume self-cultivation, and tenants were often converted to permanent laborers, as in the case of rice villages in central Philippines.
R. Takahashi (Chap. 10 in this volume) argued that a community forest management system performs efficiently for non-timber forests, whereas a mixed management system (forestland is owned by the community, trees are owned by individual members) is more effective for timber forest management (significantly increasing workdays in pruning, guarding, and watering the trees) based on a randomized experiment in Ethiopia. Place (Chap. 11 in this volume) identifies the following as constraints in the uptake of NRM practices in developing countries: lack of awareness and understanding, the long waiting period to reap the benefits, low economic returns, and lack of recognition that individuals are independent decision-makers. Muraoka (Chap. 12 in this volume) found that tenure security is an important determinant of the adoption of integrated farming management practices in Sub-Saharan Africa, along with farmer characteristics (i.e., age, education, gender, network, and experience) and household characteristics (i.e., labor availability, social safety nets, access to extension services and credit, assets, and nonfarm income).
The emergence and re-emergence of pests and diseases have become common in tropical areas because of changes in global climate. Mottaleb (Chap. 13 in this volume) quantified the economic losses due to maize lethal necrosis (MLN) outbreaks in Kenya, DR Congo, and Tanzania from 1961 to 2020. In Kenya, the estimated loss is USD 124 million, about USD 1 million in DR Congo, and USD 108 million in Tanzania. Since maize is a major staple, these losses could further create havoc on these countries’ already critical food security situations. Regarding sustainable green growth, Zaman and Kalirajan (Chap. 14 in this volume) examined the prospective roles of regional cooperation in South-through-East Asian countries. They found that if countries in this block could cooperate, they could exploit the production potential of about 34% without using additional resources. Agriculture emission management efficiency would be 45%.
4 Transformation of the Rural Economy
There has been a phenomenal increase in the usage of ICTs (computers, internet, and mobile phones) in both Asia and Africa. Using nationally representative household surveys in 2015–2019, Huang et al. (Chap. 15 in this volume) found a rapid increase in the adoption of ICTs in rural China. Regression analysis shows a digital divide, however. Rural households with access to computers and the internet have a higher number of their members employed in nonfarm employment, have larger farm sizes, and bigger household sizes. The two ICTs also have deeper penetration in these villages. Rural individuals with mobile phones tend to be younger and more educated; males have higher adoption rates than females.
Yet, despite the digital divide, ICTs could be used to bridge the gap in learning between the urban and rural children in China (Abbey et al., Chap. 16 in this volume). Conventional approaches (student migration to the cities, attracting quality teachers to rural areas, and teacher training) to improving teaching quality for disadvantaged children have been largely unsuccessful. Abbey et al. assessed that China is uniquely positioned to harness technology-assisted instruction (EdTech) (high-quality live-streamed or pre-recorded remote instruction delivered in class during the school day) to improve the quality of teaching because of adequate infrastructure in rural areas, ambitious policy initiatives, and a large EdTech market.
The most significant change in Africa is the spread of mobile phones: subscriptions per 100 people rose from 1.7 in 2000 to 82.4 in 2018. ‘Mobile money’ (electronic payment services via mobile phone) has spread among the population, often used to transfer money at low transaction costs, especially those with no formal financial services. Matsumoto and Munyegera (Chap. 17 in this volume) reported new uses for mobile money, such as school payments, loans and insurance, emergency relief, humanitarian fund transfers, and payment for public services (e.g., birth certificates). Mobile money has positive welfare and equity impacts such as increased per capita consumption, improved likelihood of savings and borrowing, improved access to antenatal care, and increased remittances for children’s schooling during health shocks.
Estudillo (Chap. 18 in this volume) presents an illustrative example of the transformation of (Kei’s) four villages in the Philippines. The drivers of the transformation in the villages are population pressure, new rice technology, land reform, investments in human capital, urbanization and commercialization, and infrastructure, while the strategic processes that accompany such transformation are rising productivity of rice farming, production of high-value crops, rising incidence of nonfarm work within the local economy, and migration to local towns, big cities, and overseas, among the younger generation. In the process of transformation, participation in the nonfarm labor market and migration serve as the main pathways for poor landless children to move out of poverty.
Sawada (Chap. 19 in this volume) examined the patterns of structural transformation in Asia. This continent has experienced a much faster transformation speed than other developed regions because of the fast decline in the terms of trade of agriculture (i.e., price of farm goods relative to nonfarm goods) brought about by the Green Revolution. The manufacturing industry drives Asia’s rapid growth because it has a large scope for innovation and technological progress. Sawada presents the case of West Laguna, which followed the agriculture-industry-service transformation (‘canonical industrialization’) because of improved road infrastructure that improved its connectivity to Manila, attracting manufacturing investments. On the other hand, East Laguna leapfrogged from agriculture to traditional and modern services bypassing the industry sector (‘premature deindustrialization’). The East Laguna pattern appears to be the same pattern evident in Kei’s villages, where income from services contributed substantially to household income growth and poverty reduction.
Larson and Bloodworth (Chap. 20 in this volume) examined how mechanization is instrumental in the intersectoral migration of agricultural labor. They found that the migration rates out of agriculture to other sectors are responsive to income differences and that the younger and better-educated workers were most likely to leave agriculture.
5 Emerging Issues
Three emerging issues in agriculture are high-value revolution, women’s inclusion in agricultural growth, and exemption of agriculture from antitrust laws.
A shift from cereals to high-value crops and livestock is driven by rising household income and global trade integration on the demand side, and new technology and improved farm management, support from trade guilds and government, and infrastructure, on the supply side.
In Vietnam, Suzuki and Nam (Chap. 21 in this volume) identified two major factors in the development of the shrimp industry: (1) a government decree that allowed farmers to convert their rice farms to shrimp ponds, and (2) the introduction of a new farming method (‘super-intensive’) that requires modern inputs and higher labor input in care activities. Shrimp is more profitable than rice, but shrimp carries higher risks in disease outbreaks caused by the spread of pathogens across farmers’ ponds.
Aida (Chap. 22 in this volume) identified three factors that stimulated the development of the tapioca/cassava industry in Thailand: (1) the release of high-yielding varieties of cassava with higher starch content, (2) expanding trade exports to China, and (3) formation of an association (Thai Tapioca Starch Association) whose primary mission is price stabilization, while at the same time serving as a venue in identifying problems in the industry and its solutions. According to Aida, the development of the tapioca industry can be explained by cluster-based development (i.e., evolution from quantity expansion stage [chips and native starch production, with low entry costs] to quality expansion stage [cassava starch for export] where associations play an important role).
Enterprises in a cluster have a comparative advantage in market access, labor pooling, and information spillovers. Zhang (Chap. 23 in this volume) identified the Anding potato cluster in China as a dynamic cluster because of the introduction of a high-yield variety and disease-free potato seeds, the presence of a producer association and enhanced transport services, and the emergence of starch processing firms that expanded the potato value chain. The county government played a proactive role in stimulating the development of the cluster. The medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) clusters in Egypt, in contrast, were unable to become dynamic because of water contamination, the high cost of laboratory tests, and rigid licensing requirements. The dates clusters in Tunisia were stagnant because of inadequate water supply, labor shortages, diseases, lack of new varieties, and limited value addition. In these two, the local government was passive in overcoming the growth constraints in the clusters.
There is a need to reduce postproduction losses of perishable horticultural products. Yamauchi and Takeshima (Chap. 24 in this volume) examined the impacts of introducing solar-powered cold storage facilities in Nigeria, where only a small percentage of rural households have access to electricity. Cold storage improved local livelihood by reducing food loss, improving nutrition, and generating new employment, especially among women.
Women are deepening their involvement in agriculture as they face constraints on land, credit, and new technology. The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) is a metric launched in 2012 to monitor women’s inclusion in agricultural growth. Tools and methods to calculate the WEAI are undergoing revisions to shorten the process and reflect criteria that agricultural development projects deemed meaningful as project success (Quisumbing et al., Chap. 25 in this volume). Eventual modifications reflected the demand for specialized modules for women’s market inclusion. WEAI is useful to governments and civil society in designing gender-sensitive agricultural development programs and national statistical systems to assess a country’s progress toward SDG 5 on women’s empowerment and gender equality.
Agriculture has enjoyed exemptions from competition law and policy because of agriculture’s unique characteristics: biological and physical processes, missing markets, and geographically dispersed farmers facing a highly concentrated marketing sector. Balisacan (Chap. 26 in this volume) argues that such exemption strengthens farmers’ comparatively weak position in the balance of political influence in agricultural policymaking and increases farmers’ bargaining power over the more concentrated wholesale-retail segments of the agri-food value chain.
6 Policy Implications
This volume ends with a four-part strategy to enhance agricultural growth in both Asia and Africa. First, for the low productivity agricultural systems in Africa, using agriculture as the engine of growth and poverty reduction continues to be the best option. Green Revolution in cereals is the first step. Evidence in this volume shows that the Green Revolution in rice has begun in Africa and appears to be quickly spreading. Professor Otsuka argues that the primary strategy to pursue a Green Revolution in Africa is to strengthen the agricultural extension system to promote farming intensification with the adoption of improved rice management practices, while the complementary strategies consist of the expansion of irrigated areas, diffusion of power tillers, and the quality improvement of milled rice using improved milling technologies. Pingali (Chap. 2 in this volume) recommends that in Asia, there is a need to further enhance research and development for rice and for other crops; use bio-fortification to include Vitamin A, zinc, and iron to solve malnutrition problems; and develop heat- and drought-resistant technologies and infrastructure like micro-irrigation systems to address climate change. There is also a need to address the spread of pests and diseases, which could be done through coordination between farmers, extension agents, and the government. Externalities of this kind can be internalized by the cooperation of various stakeholders.
Second, secured property rights on natural resources are the most important factor in enhancing the productivity of natural resources and in the uptake of conservative practices. For cropland, formalized land tenure system can increase land-related investments, facilitate land transfer, and enhance access to credit for modern inputs. Community forest management effectively protects forest resources from excessive extraction through cooperation in monitoring. A mixed management system, which is the combination of private and common ownership (forests belong to the community, trees to individual members), appears to create greater incentives for taking care of timber forests (R. Takahashi, Chap. 10 in this volume).
Third, the first step to transforming the rural economy is to improve agricultural productivity through the Green Revolution. Agricultural terms of trade decrease, thereby stimulating the release of resources away from agriculture into industry and services. The Philippine villages (Estudillo, Chap. 18 in this volume) are an illustrative example of how the combination of land reform, irrigation, and the Green Revolution led to rice production and household income growth, stimulating investments in human capital. As Asian agriculture faces a scarcity of labor, mechanization is bound to accelerate to ease the increasing bottleneck in labor (Larson and Bloodworth, Chap. 20 in this volume). Mechanization is an integral part of the whole gamut of processes in rural economic transformation. Supporting the spread of ICTs is a step in the right direction, as ICTs have various uses and have positive welfare and equity impacts (Matsumoto and Munyegera, Chap. 17 in this volume).
Finally, high-value agriculture is most likely to spread far and wide as the demand for a more diversified diet ensues with increased household income. There is a need to support high-value revolution through investments in infrastructure, such as electricity, good quality roads, ICTs, and preservation facilities, such as cold storage (Yamauchi and Takeshima, Chap. 24 in this volume). Since women are observed to have a comparative advantage in the production of fresh fruits and vegetables, their involvement in agriculture will deepen further in the future, and thus there is a need to address women’s constraints in access to land, credit, markets, and new technology.
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Estudillo, J.P., Kijima, Y., Sonobe, T. (2023). Summary and Conclusions. In: Estudillo, J.P., Kijima, Y., Sonobe, T. (eds) Agricultural Development in Asia and Africa. Emerging-Economy State and International Policy Studies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5542-6_27
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