SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South Asia are likely to hold large numbers of very poor rural people into the foreseeable future. Although both history and theory suggest a pre-eminent role for agricultural growth in poverty reduction in poor agrarian economies, such growth today faces new difficulties. Many of these difficulties are endogenous to today’s poor rural areas, others result from broader processes of global change, but some are due to changes in the dominant policy environment, emphasizing liberalization and state withdrawal. Examination of 20th century Green Revolutions suggests that active state interventions were important in supporting critical stages of agricultural market development. Unfortunately such interventions’ benefits in institutional development are easily overlooked, whereas their high costs are much more visible. Policy implications are discussed.