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obtain a nonfarm source of income; or
exit farming completely and move to
employment elsewhere.
Migration out of agriculture to
nonfarm employment is a normal and
essential element of economic growth
and poverty reduction. By reducing the
number of people trying to make a living
on uneconomically small pieces of
land, outmigration creates the opportunity
for both those who leave agriculture
as well as those who stay behind
to have higher incomes. In the normal
course of economic development, first
the fraction of the workforce and eventually
the absolute number of people
engaged in agriculture must decline.
Rural to urban migration is driven
principally by the desire of those who
migrate to escape poverty and secure a
better quality of life —at least for their
children than is possible within either
agriculture or the nonfarm economy
of the rural community they left. To
avoid urban problems of overcrowding,
unemployment, crime and pollution
associated with excessive rural-to-urban
migration, it is essential to create more
nonfarm job opportunities within the
rural communities and smaller cities dispersed
through a low-income country.
Rural Development: Farm and Nonfarm
The objective of rural development in
poor countries is to reduce poverty and
hunger and improve the quality of life
in general in nonurban areas, where the
majority of poverty is found. Increasing
productivity in agriculture is essential
and will contribute to greater national
food security and to the global supply of
food. However, this is only part of rural
development, which must also diversify
the economic base of rural communities
by creating nonfarm earning
opportunities. This has an additional
benefit to national economic development.
The national income multiplier
associated with increments to income in
rural communities is higher than from
increases in urban residents’ incomes.
Only the private sector can create
enough jobs to solve the problem of poverty
in low-income countries’ rural or
urban areas; however, government needs
to provide a positive investment climate
before either local or international inves-
10 SAISPHERE
tors supply capital to create these jobs.
There must be reasonable macroeconomic
and political stability, rule of law,
definition and protection of property
rights, and enforcement of contracts.
In addition, investments in a number
of rural public goods need to be
made—by the public sector, official
development assistance (foreign aid),
international development bank lending
or a combination of these sources.
Investments in rural infrastructure,
education, health, and agricultural
research and technology transfer are
required to solve the problem of rural
poverty through development of both
agriculture and the nonfarm sector.
Education and health services are
much less available in rural areas of
most low-income countries than in the
cities. Many areas lack safe drinking
water and sanitation. Waterborne diseases
are rampant. Permanent stunting
of mental and physical development
from nutritional deficiencies of young
children is common. There might be no
locally available source of certain essential
nutrients in the diet, for example,
vitamin A, iron, iodine or zinc.
Illiteracy is widespread in the farm
population of low-income countries,
particularly among women. Educating
girls is one of the most effective ways to
reduce the rate of population growth,
and better education of the farmers
of the future facilitates adoption of
improved agricultural techniques. Outmigration
from agriculture to nonfarm
employment is far easier between generations
than within any generation,
yet educational opportunities are much
more limited for children in rural areas
compared with urban children.
The poor quality of roads, if they
exist at all, impedes rural development
by raising the cost of transporting
goods and people to and from the
area. Most improved technologies are
embodied in inputs the farmer must
purchase. High transport cost raises
the cost of inputs and reduces the
price farmers receive for the products
they sell, making it unprofitable to
use technologies that could otherwise
enhance their household income.
Marketing institutions are necessary
to supply farmers with inputs and to
connect farmers to regional and national
markets for their products. There is no
benefit to a farmer’s increasing productivity
or shifting to higher-value-perhectare
crops if no market is ready to
buy the output at a remunerative price.
Finding buyers for their products is a
particular problem for smallholders,
who have only small lots of production
to sell. Securing credit to buy inputs at
planting time is a particular problem to
these landowners who have little or no
collateral to pledge against the loan, if
credit providers exist at all.
Until recently, rural areas of many