The agriculture-industry continuum

Abstract

This is a very condensed examination of the reciprocal interactions between agriculture and industry in the development process. It is argued that today's 'late developing countries' -- those characterised by an economic structure in which agriculture still accounts for some 60 to 80 per cent of the country's total labour force and by rapid rates of growth of both population and labour force -- confront special problems and opportunities. One consequence of those structural/ demographic characteristics is that the nature and time sequence of farm innovations will determine the proportion of a country's farmers that is able to participate in the process of agricultural modernisation. And whether or not a country's agricultural strategy leads to wide participation of the rural population in technical and economic advance has major implications for the achievement of both the economic and social goals of national development.