Strategies for Stimulating Poverty-alleviating Growth in the Rural ...

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Table 1--Vulnerability of rural manufacturing to urban competition, Bouake
region, Ivory Coast, 1970 (employment per 1,000 population)
Activity
Kilometers from Bouake*
0-10 10-15 15-20 20-25 25+
Diminishing importance near town
basket makers 6.2 8.8 16.4 19.5 40.7
weavers 9.7 11.7 13.8 15.7 17.8
potters 2.7 4.6 3.8 3.4 4.2
dyers 0.0 0.5 2.3 6.8 1.9
wood carvers 0.6 1.4 0.9 0.6 1.1
others 0.9 2.3 2.2 2.3 5.0
Increasing importance near town
builders (cement) 2.8 2.9 1.9 1.8 1.9
builders (mud) 1.7 1.8 2.2 1.3 1.1
Uniform density
tailors 1.6 1.2 2.3 1.5 1.5
Total 26.2 35.2 46.0 53.1 75.2
Source: Ancey (1974), p.116.
Bouake had a population of 110,000 in 1970.
Rural towns also stimulate additional agricultural production by improving the range,
quality and availability of farm inputs, financial services, and agricultural marketing and
processing services (Hardoy and Satterthwaite 1986). Asia’s green revolution, for example,
launched development of a major boom in local manufacturing of farm equipment and
processing machinery (Johnston and Kilby 1975). Often beginning as an outgrowth of
traditional black smithing, local entrepreneurs respond to increasing demands for simple
tillage, pumping and threshing machines, and provide products that are much better adapted
to local conditions than machines purchased from outside.
As the rural economy continues to grow, trade with larger urban centers also expands,
and more urban goods become available. These often displace many traditional rural
products, forcing structural changes in the composition of the rural economy and its towns.