Year: 1988
Type: article
Abstract: institute of Developmeut Studies, Sussex trading system is biased against tropical exports.The likelihood of declining international terms of trade, the greater prospect of price and export income instability, and the political and economic risks of relying on world markets for essential food supplies combine to outweigh any static gains from the pursuit of comparative advantage.Second, export agriculture is held likely to worsen the already precarious position of the poor majority within developing countries.It is argued that rural poverty and hunger are increased by the competition between food and export crops for scarce capital, land and other inputs, and by the impetus given to the concentration of land use and ownership.Third, export-oriented agriculture is criticised for its limited growth effects at the national level arising from the paucity and nature of its linkages with the remainder of the national economy.Thus despite the private advantage to commodity producers in cultivating export crops, it is believed that the social interest would be better served by a more autarkic policy.This article is concerned with the third of these issues.The question it asks is: is there a case for granting protection to the food-producing sector in food-deficit countries on growth and employment grounds?This issue is addressed by drawing an explicit parallel between the debate over import substitution industrialisation (IST) and food self-sufficiency, or agricultural import substitution (AIS), strategies.In the next section possible arguments to justify agricultural import substitution on growth and employment grounds are evaluated.The subsequent section considers the potential of empirical studies to throw light on the question.Irish agricultural policy in the l930s is then briefly considered as a case study ofa food self-sufficiency episode.The final section summarises the article's conclusions. Agricultural Import Substitution EvaluatedThe literature on import substitution strategies until now has been solely concerned with industrial policy.Because agricultural imports have been an insignificant proportion of both total imports and total agricultural production the potential for AIS as a development strategy was very limited.State intervention in LDCs 5
Source: IDS Bulletin
Author: Alan Matthews
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1978267284