The 2008 Agricultural Digest - Ministry of Agriculture and Rural ...

II. LITERATURE REVIEW ON AGRICULTUREAND ITS ROLE IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTStructural change can be referred to as the long-term changein the fundamental structure of an economy throughout itsdevelopmental experience. Classical economists such asFisher (1939), Clark (1940), and Chenery and Syrquin (1975),highlighted the positive relationship between structural changeand economic growth. For these economists, structuralchange referred to production shifting from the primary(agriculture, fishing, forestry, and mining) to the secondary(manufacturing and construction) and finally the tertiaryindustry (services).Kuznets (1961, 1971) in his empirical analysis of the theoryof economic growth, disaggregated the economy into theclassifications of agriculture, industry and services. He foundan association between growth of per capita income and ashift in production structure (structural change). According to him,the relationship was established due to the combined effect ofchanges in the (i) structure of consumer demand, (ii) comparativeadvantage and (iii) technology (Nayak and Mishra, 2009).Developmental economics was also highly influenced byLewis (1954). Lewis (1954) sought to explain the dynamics of howstructural transformation from an agricultural-based economyto a more industrial system would result in economic growthand development. Essentially, Lewis (1954) argued that theeconomy was dualistic, that is, divided into the traditional andcapitalist sectors.His theory highlighted the fact that the traditional sectorexhibited low productivity, low technology, and those whoresided in rural areas produced most of what they consumed.However, the capitalist sector was profit-oriented, morecapital intensive, exhibited high productivity, was technologicallydriven and paid higher wages than the traditionalsector. According to Eicher and Staatz (1998), the relative neglectof the agricultural industry during the 1950s was furtherexacerbated by the two independent theses of Raul Prebischand Hans Singer in 1949, and Hirschman in 1958. Prebisch andSinger both argued that over time, the terms of trade would beagainst those countries that exported primary products andimported manufactured ones. Hirschman (1958) on the otherhand introduced the concept of linkages as a tool for investing.He suggested that investing in one type of activity inducesinvestment in other income-generating activities. Accordingto Hirschman (1958), investment in industry would generallylead to a more rapid and broad-based economic growth thaninvestment in agriculture would.These aforementioned classical theories that placed agriculturein a secondary role essentially overshadowed the works ofother economists who attempted to illustrate the industry ina positive light. Kuznets (1961) was one of these economiststhat acknowledged the positive contributions of the agriculturalindustry to economic growth, in such areas as product, marketand factor development in the economy.Johnston and Mellor (1961) also supported Kuznets (1961)by arguing that agriculture could play a far from passive roleby making five important contributions in the growth anddevelopment of developing economies. These contributionsinclude: increasing national food supplies; providing labourfor other industries; capital formation; the earning of foreignexchange; and the stimulation of industrialisation throughincreased rural net cash income.Volume 1Agricultural Digest | 20085