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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Some thoughts on the process of rural deterioration in Africa
Author:Anonymous
Year:1992
Periodical:Rural Progress: Bulletin of the Economic Commission for Africa
Volume:11
Issue:2
Pages:51-60
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:agricultural crisis
agricultural policy
Abstract:This paper presents an overview of the process of rural deterioration in Africa. Historically this deterioration can be correlated with the rise of Nation-States in the 20th century, when central decisionmaking was established at the expense of the autonomy of more or less self-reliant and self-governing thinly populated clusters of settlements with a common heritage, modes of production and distribution, which lived in equilibrium with the environment. A dichotomy emerged between the so-called traditional, labour-intensive, low productive rural sector and the modern, capital-intensive high productive urban sector. The vitality of the rural sector was drained in various ways. Agriculture was 'bled' to feed the cities, and rural people migrated to urban areas. The paper argues that if African governments had had the foresight to remain 'agricultural', and had allowed the surplus from the rural sector to be invested in the rural sector itself, to pay for its modernization and the build-up of infrastructure, none of the traditional roles of agriculture would by themselves have weakened the economic base of rural Africa and led to its overall deterioration. The lesson is that the emphasis must again be placed on re-empowering the marginalized, through the development of the rural areas, without degradation of the environment. Experience in Africa shows that there is no shortcut to modernization which bypasses the transformation of the rural sector.
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