Program and Research Issues in Rural Development

Abstract

Several considerations prompt me to use this occasion to explore some program and research issues in rural development, even though there are no firm conclusions about many of the matters I will discuss and therefore I probably will raise more questions than I answer. My main objective is to draw attention to rural problems, a topic too often neglected by general economists. Because of the general invisibility of rural problems in an urban-biased society, scholars as well as policymakers and the general public have many misconceptions about rural matters. Few disciplines have stronger urban biases than economics. I do not wish to imply, however, that our failure to formulate better rural policies is due entirely to an absence of rural research. Rather, the problem derives from a general failure to take a comprehensive approach to rural development and to the limitations of our theoretical and factual bases for analyzing rural problems. However, our understanding is also defective partly because the study of rural matters has been left mainly to the agribusiness-establishment-the land grant colleges, the United States Department of Agriculture, and related agribusiness organizations. Research in the land grant colleges and the USDA undoubtedly has been very good, in terms of work related to agricultural pro-