The World Bank and the Peasant Problem

Rural development is an activity undertaken by governments and by international agencies, public and private. It takes a number of forms, many of which are combined with one another: credit programmes, irrigation schemes, farm settlements, extension services, marketing cooperatives, the provision of chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides, and high-yielding varieties of seeds. Their purpose appears to be self-evident, namely, an increase in agricultural production and an improvement in living standards. However, at least in Africa, as several of the essays in this volume demonstrate, the historical record shows that rural development has often failed to achieve either of these ends, let alone both of them. By any criteria, successful projects have been the exception rather than the rule. There have been impressive examples of the expansion of agricultural production in Africa, during the colonial period in some countries and since then in others. This has been achieved by rural producers reorganising production to take advantage of new or expanded markets for food and other crops. It required the provision of cheap transport by sea, rail and road; it owed little or nothing to the direct involvement of public agencies in agricultural production and marketing. With some significant exceptions, such involvement tended to hinder rather than to assist the development of agricultural production (Hill, 1963; Berry, 1975; Hopkins, 1973; Williams, 1975; and the essays in this volume).