Agriculture must do more than produce enough to meet rising
economic requirements for food if it is to fulfill its role in national
economic development. Economic productivity in agriculture must
increase so that there will be an “economic surplus” which can be
used for further production in agriculture or can be transferred out
of agriculture to provide capital for industrial growth and to meet
consumption needs of the urban population.
Fortunately, most of the thought leaders on this subject and most
of the countries themselves have come to realize what always should
have been known: that no country with three-fourths of its people
living on farms can jump very high from a platform of rural stagna-
tion, rural poverty, rural illiteracy, rural indebtedness, and even
rural serfdom.
FOOD AID AND OTHER ECONOMIC AID
In countries where agricultural production is not keeping pace
with expanding economic demands, agricultural commodity aid can
provide much needed resources for economic development. In fact,
food aid may be worth just as much as other kinds of economic aid.
Dr. Erven Long has pointed out that if the agricultural sector
of the less developed countries is not able to satisfy food demand,
many serious consequences follow.1 Countries may have to cut back
sharply in their general development programs in order to shift re-
sources into food production or into food purchase. As national de-
velopment is thus slowed down, people become frustrated, lose hope,
and manifest this in a wide range of disorganizing activities.
In order to be most effective, agricultural commodity aid should
be programmed as a part of realistic long-term national economic
development plans. Many countries need large amounts of food aid
as well as other kinds of aid for several years in the future in order to
accelerate economic growth rates. Food aid to meet emergency con-
ditions that cannot be foreseen, of course, also can contribute to
economic growth and human welfare.
Large numbers of people in the developing countries are not
fully employed. Agricultural commodities can be used to pay labor
that otherwise would be unemployed on capital development projects
such as construction of roads, schools, and land improvements for
drainage, irrigation, and soil erosion control. Perhaps not enough
effort has been made to use food aid in resource development projects.
jSee Erven J. Long, “Agriculture in the Developing Countries,” address at General
Session of the Association of Southern Agricultural Workers, Inc., Dallas, Texas,
February 2, 1965.
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