ROLE OF AGRICULTURE IN THE ECONOMY
Vigorous and sustained agricultural growth is of vital importance for
low- and middle-income countries and governments are rightly concerned with the level and pace of agricultural development. This concern is related to considerations of combating poverty, the need for disposing of sufficient food supplies and the key role which the agricultural sector may play in the overall economic development of a country.
After decades of steady growth in world agricultural production and
productivity, particularly in developed countries, during which global
supply of food has kept pace with food demand based on population
growth, currently diminishing world food supplies indicate a critical
juncture for world agriculture due to:
• Recent increases in food demand arising from population growth
and per capita income growth in newly industrialized countries and
recently in several large population countries as well as emergency
situations in low income food deficit countries, have begun to overtake the world food supply and are affecting current food stocks and
prices.
• A large number of poor people are not receiving adequate diets at
current food supplies and prices.
• Technologically induced increases in the production of important
food staples have offset supply constraints for several decades, but
these technologies have not been adopted universally. Such changes
have been limited to a few commodities and in some important
instances this technology is approaching its current limits of potential yield levels, as is the case with the first round of the green revolution in Asia.
• The amount of total cultivated land has been rather stable, but arable
land per capita has declined by 20 percent over the past 15 years.
This is particularly critical for several large population countries,
which are still in the early stages of economic development and currently experience rapid increases in food demand due to fast income
growth per capita.