9.1 The Imperative of Agricultural Progress and Rural development
If migration of people with and without school certificates to the cities of Africa. Asia, and Latin America is proceeding at historically unprecedented rates a large part of the explanation can be found in the economic stagnation of outlying rural areas Despite real progress, nearly 2 billion people in the developing world grind out a meager and often inadequate existence in agricultural pursuits over 3.1 billion people lived in rural areas in developing countries in 2010, a quarter of them in extreme poverty. People living in tie countryside make up more than half of the population of such diverse latin American and Asian nations as Haiti, Guatemala India, Indonesia. Myanmar Thailand, Honduras Sri Lanka. Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, China. In sub-Saharan Africa, the ratios are much higher, with rural dwellers constituting 65% of the total population. of greater importance than sheer numbers is the fact that well over two thirds of the world's poorest people are also located in rural areas and engaged primarily in subsistence agriculture their basic concern is survival Many hundreds of millions of people have been bypassed by whatever economic progress their nations have attained The United Nations Food and agriculture organization estimated that in 2009, for the first time over 1 billion people did not have enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs in the daily