Monday, May 4, 2020

Economics Development for Economic and Social- myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theEconomics Development for Economic and Social Aspects. Answer: Introduction Key aspects of Agriculture sector and its role in contributing to economic and social aspects of a nation Agricultural sector have always played a very strategic role in procedures of economic development of the nations. Agriculture has made significant contribution in the economic growth and prosperity of the developed countries. In the developing and less developed countries, agriculture has all the more critical role to play in the process of economic development. Emphasis is put on agriculture and other types of primary industries, when the per capita real income is very low and cannot push the economy to grow. Rise in the output of agricultural sector and in the per capita income of the rural society along with urbanization and industrialization resulted in the rise in the demand of the industrial production. Many less developed countries across the world have experienced the negative outcome of putting excessive emphasis on the industrialization for increasing the per capita income. Hence, these countries have been shifting their focus towards the agricultural sector to attain a higher per capita income (Johnson 2014). It has been observed that, as a country is getting developed over time, the importance of the agricultural sector decreases relatively, because, Ernst Engel showed that, when income rises, people tend to spend less money on the food or agricultural products (Macatta 2016). This trend has been followed by almost every country when industrial production started to rise. However, agricultural sector makes significant contribution in the economic development of any country through the supply of raw materials and food to the non-agricultural sectors of the economy, by creating the demands for the products of the non-agricultural sectors, earning valuable foreign currency by exporting cash crops, such as, coffee, cotton, maize, cocoa beans, sugarcane etc., by supplying investable surplus from savings for the nonagricultural sector, and most importantly, providing the opportunity of employment to a vast number of less educated, financially backward, and unskilled workforce. Only agriculture can provide the self-sustaining economic growth to any nation (Islam 2016). The countries that are developed and advanced today, were all predominantly agricultural economies and with a huge support from the agriculture, they could move into the era of industrialization. The developing economies are still majorly dependent on the agricultural sector as it contributes a large portion in the national income. Thus, it can be said that, agriculture is the backbone of almost all industries of a developed or developing country and it is a major contributor in the economic growth of the country. Green revolution Green revolution has been a major event in the agricultural sector of the world, happened between 1930s and 1960s. It is referred to the set of technological development initiatives that increased the agricultural output across the world, majorly from the late 1960s (Shiva 2016). The notable impact of Green Revolution was seen in the production of cereals in India, Mexico, Philippines, Pakistan and in many other developing countries during 1960s and 1970s. The adoption of modern technologies in agriculture such as, genetically modified hybrid seeds, called high yielding varieties (HYVs) for different types of cereals, like wheat, maize and rice, controlled irrigation facilities, chemical fertilizers and new methods of cultivation using mechanisms are the foundation of Green Revolution across the world (Baranski 2015). All of these mechanisms are seen as a package introduced in the Green Revolution that would yield higher production than in the traditional agricultural practices. Norm an Borlaug is the Father of Green Revolution, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. The application of the new techniques of this revolution had resulted in more than double agricultural production and is said to have averted the famines in India and Pakistan. Extensive amount of research was done by Borlaug and his team and new varieties of wheat were generated that would grew well in different climatic conditions and also get benefitted from extra amount of chemical fertilizers. This resulted in the growth of wheat by four times and Mexico turned into self sufficient producer of wheat by 1956 while it was a major importer of wheat earlier (Hertel, Ramankutty and Baldos 2014). The Mexican dwarf wheat was another achievement of this revolution. The developed countries experienced the impact quite fast, while in the developing countries, the results took more time to come due to lack of capital and infrastructure. The wheat production under green revolution saw a huge boost in India and Pakistan, two major developing economies in Asia, as it got doubled in both the c ountries within 5 years. Pakistan went from 4.6 million tons in 1965 to 8.4 million tons in 1970, and India went from 12.3 million tons in 1965 to 20 million tons in 1970 (Goron and Raizada 2015). The other developing countries of Asia also started to adopt these measures during that time and have been majorly benefited due to massively increased agricultural production. Setbacks and problems faced by Agriculture sector The major setback faced by the agricultural sector is the techniques for sustainable farming and adequate financial support to develop or apply those techniques. Like all the sectors, agriculture also faces the issue of sustainability. After few decades of applying the Green Revolution technique, theInternational Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) reports that people across the world has realized that although highly developed scientific techniques have been able to increase the agricultural production, the unintended environmental and social consequences of the achievements have been ignored (Altieri 2018). The environmental damages caused by advanced technology reduce sustainability and agricultural sector is also affected by that. Although the agricultural production have increased manifold across the world, the developing countries suffer from low per capita income, which make people unable to obtain required amount of food and hence, suffe r from malnutrition and poor food quality. Rise in the chronic diseases due to lack of good quality food and food safety, increasing soil, water and air pollution and lack of capital strength have been contributing in the setbacks of the agricultural sectors in the developing countries (greenfacts.org. 2016). The pace of advanced technology generation and adoption is also highly unequal across the developed and developing countries. The developing countries lack the advanced digital technology that can make the agricultural processes easier. According to a report by World Economic Forum, almost one third of the world population relies on agriculture for living and growth in this sector is twice effective for reducing poverty than growth in other sectors (Warshauer 2016). However, the sector has not been fully able to access the digital applications that can help in improving productivity. The farmers in the rural areas of the poor countries do not have access to smartphones and mobile internet, through which they could access the weather apps or news on agricultural policies or prices of products in the market. They have to depend on the middlemen and get exploited. Thus, crop diseases, bad weather and lower prices from the middlemen create major problems for the agricultural sector (Isla m 2016). Major agricultural policies of Taiwan Agriculture is the major source of rural development, food security and conservation of Taiwan. According to Hok-wui Wong and Wu (2016), Taiwan uses 24% of its total land for agricultural purposes. By 2013, the major agricultural production of Taiwan were planted crops (47.88%), livestock (31.16%), fishery (20.87%) and forest plantation (0.09%) (YANG and LI 2014). Rice is the major cash crop of Taiwan. Agricultural sector contributed 1.69% of Taiwans GDP, worth of NT$ 475.90 in 2013, and it provides employment to around 540,000 people, which is around 5% of the population (Yang and Han 2017). The agricultural exports of Taiwan amount to around USD 5 billion, and mainly go to China, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Middle East and the USA. For agricultural financing, there is Agricultural Bank of Taiwan. Council of Agriculture (COA) handles the agriculture related affairs in Taiwan. The agricultural policies are formulated and implemented by COA. There are some successful land reform policies in Taiwan, which have contributed significantly in the development of agriculture. In this island country, the total amount of agricultural land is less than 3 million hectares (Afa.gov.tw. 2018). As stated by Lee (2013), approximately 810,000 hectares of land are utilized for farming and the average number of farming household is 780,000. The first phase of agricultural land reform was introduced in 1946 and went till 1982. Dr. Sun Yet-Sen introduced the land reform policies with a vision to maintain a balance in the land ownership. During the 1950s, the lands in Taiwan were owned by the riches and they controlled the agriculture and food supply. Hence, the policy Land Rental with Option to Buy was introduced and government intervened in the land ownership. This brought many farmers into the se ctor and many projects were implemented by the government. The second phase of reform came during 1983 to 2000. Fast moving economy, oil crisis, land fragmentation, shortage of food and forward moving agricultural planning shaped the land reform policies during this time. The specific policies are low interest long term loan for expanding ranch, cooperative operations, promoting mechanical farming, consignment of farming operations, elimination of the inheritance tax for one child, and allowance for land owners for reclaiming rented land under the policy of 37.5% operational expansion (eng.coa.gov.tw. 2017). There is also policy for construction of farming land and release of the unusable agricultural land. The land reform policy was revised in 2000 to 2008. It included policy revision for qualification for ownership of farming land, land development, improved land contract system and tax benefits. The third phase started in 2009 that has policies for early retirement for aging farm ers, establishing Leverage Bank of Agriculture Land for supporting finance to agriculture, introducing specialized production zone and enabling COA the responsibility of agriculture in Taiwan. COA has also adopted marketing strategy and measures for agriculture through four strategies. It aims to promote the development of agricultural integration and export oriented agricultural industry and fishery, to develop an international brand, and increase the global competitiveness, to expand the overseas access for the agricultural and fishery products, and strengthen the international promotion for business opportunities. It also aimed for improving the fresh agricultural export supply chain and food processing supply chain, expanding Halal food market and constructing an elite export database (Yang and Han 2017). Through these land reform policies and marketing strategies, Taiwan has been improving the condition of the agricultural sector, which is being reflected in the economic growth. Argument on the statement: Agriculture is often given a subsidiary role in development policy even though it is vital to food security and employment Agriculture not only provides raw materials to the industry, but also provides a good source of capital for the industrial development through a surplus, which can be converted into necessary funds. These funds could be utilized for purchasing the industrial machinery and equipment or for building roads to provide the public services (Altieri 2018). Economic development requires an increasing source of human capital. Agricultural sector generates employment for mostly rural population. It should be able to generate enough food not only for the rural areas but also for the large portions of the urban areas. It is a major sector that provides not only food, but also employment to a huge section of the population and revenue to the GDP. Thus, every economy should give priority to the agricultural sector (Johnson 2014). With the application of modern technology, agriculture has huge potential to be the leading contributory sector of an economy. On the other hand, Warshauer (2016) highlights that, there is also a difficulty in giving higher priority to agriculture as the majority of the agricultural production and income gains remain concentrated in certain areas and do not expand in throughout the nation. Hence, when the production of another region is low due to various factors, such as, bad climate or lack of machineries, they suffer from the disadvantages of price fall. This is a serious problem in the developing countries. Economic progress in one sector comes with lingering backwardness in some other sector, as seen in Southern Italy or Appalachian areas of the USA. Hence, it is seen that, although agriculture provides food security, the countries often put emphasis on the growth of other sectors for economic development, as the impact is widespread and not regional. Conclusion From the above discussion, it can be said that, agricultural has been a vital sector of the economy for both the developed and developing countries. The countries started their economic progress through the development of the agricultural sector and then moved into the industrial sectors. In this essay, the agricultural policies of Taiwan have been highlighted to exhibit the process of the agricultural progress, which have contributed majorly in the economic growth. Through land reform policies, green revolution, digitalization and application of modern techniques, agricultural sector of the countries can generate huge output and provide the much needed support to the other sectors, however, it is seen that, the countries majorly shift their focus on the other sectors while developing the policies for economic growth due to the reason that, agriculture often brings concentrated and regional growth in the economy. References Afa.gov.tw. 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