Agriculture, Sustainable Development, and Government Policy in Developing Countries

  • Kalim Siddiqui

Press/Media: Research

Description

Bandung Conference (1955) in Indonesia was the first large meeting of leaders from newly independent countries from Asia and Africa, where a declaration was submitted, which included opposing colonial and neo-colonial policies, to improve cooperation among the newly independent countries. It was also said to improve the living conditions of their people by safeguarding economic sovereignty and raising agricultural output to avoid occurrences of famines, which killed millions of people in the pre-independence period (Siddiqui, 2020a; 2020b). However, the strategy adopted to raise agricultural output was through land distribution i.e. allocating land to the tillers. It aimed, firstly, to remove rural inequality and increase output and incomes of the rural poor. Secondly, by increasing rural incomes, it was intended to expand markets for industrial goods. In most of East Asia, such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, and also in Vietnam and China, land was re-distributed to the tillers, which dramatically reduced rural inequality and increased agricultural outputs. Moreover, the state took a number of measures in the industrial sector both to encourage investments and joint-ventures, and also to encourage exports. As a result, these countries emerged as successful and economically powerful nations.

Period21 Feb 2021

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