Chapter 19 Chapter Summary

In the past half-century, thinking about rural development has undergone two paradigm shifts. The first was in the mid-1960s, from a belief that smallholder “peasant” agriculture was inherently inefficient (and therefore needed to be replaced by more modern forms) to a set of beliefs that saw smallholders as “inherently rational” and therefore the potential driving force of increased efficiency and productivity. The second was a switch in the late 1980s and early 1990s, from top-down rural development towards efforts to make rural development more “participatory,” led or at least more controlled by rural communities.

Most recently, the “sustainable livelihoods” approach has vied with the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers as the explanatory lens for rural development. The concept of sustainable livelihoods challenges the assumption that rural incomes are largely derived from farming. It considers instead the full range of strategies pursued in rural areas and their interconnections. By contrast, the World Bank’s PRSPs approach is strongly sectoral and focuses on agriculture without developing its linkages to other economic sectors.

The food crisis of 2008, quickly eclipsed by the economic crisis, supports the argument that agricultural development and rural development are not synonymous. Dramatically falling commodity prices show it is risky to assume that increased agricultural production will necessarily result in improved development outcomes. Thus, targeting agriculture in development strategies is a necessary, but not sufficient, aspect of rural development.