Surplus Agricultural Labor Research Articles

The Transformation of the Agricultural Population and the Urbanisation Process in China

"Nine causes for the occurrence of surplus agricultural labour with the modernisation of agriculture have been identified. Several solutions to this problem are presented. Urbanisation of the agricultural population in a way suited to China's characteristics is necessary, important and possible." An example of labor saving through mechanization in Heilongjiang province is presented.

Agriculture and Economic Development

This book describes the interactions between agriculture and economic development in developing countries. The authors first consider the different structure and organization of agriculture in developed and developing countries and some features of traditional agriculture and peasant farmer behavior. Agriculture provides the economy with food and raw materials. A growing agricultural sector produces a growing economy a labor force for industry and a source of capital for investment elsewhere. The authors examine the interchangeabilty of products land and labor surpluses as well as different systems of land tenure; they also critically evaluate dual economy models and the role of surplus agricultural labor. The issue of efficiency in agricultural resource use is examined in the contexts of poverty risk uncertainty and farm size. Modern agricultural technology is analyzed in terms of its impact and barriers to its adoption. The authors examine the effects of incentives and prices on production. Institutional constraints to agricultural development--such as land ownership--are discussed. Sensible pricing policies and restructuring agricultural markets are recommended for developing economies. The authors also analyze the relationship between population size and food supply and agricultures place in international trade. Finally micro and macro planning for agriculture are considered including the merits of the Soviet tribute model and the Chinese model; input-output analysis for agricultural planning; and cost-benefit analysis for project evaluation. (authors modified)

Ghatak, Subrata, and Ken Ingersent. Agriculture and Economic Development. Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984, 380 pp., $@@‐@@27.50, $@@‐@@10.95 paper

This book describes the interactions between agriculture and economic development in developing countries. The authors first consider the different structure and organization of agriculture in developed and developing countries and some features of traditional agriculture and peasant farmer behavior. Agriculture provides the economy with food and raw materials. A growing agricultural sector produces a growing economy a labor force for industry and a source of capital for investment elsewhere. The authors examine the interchangeabilty of products land and labor surpluses as well as different systems of land tenure; they also critically evaluate dual economy models and the role of surplus agricultural labor. The issue of efficiency in agricultural resource use is examined in the contexts of poverty risk uncertainty and farm size. Modern agricultural technology is analyzed in terms of its impact and barriers to its adoption. The authors examine the effects of incentives and prices on production. Institutional constraints to agricultural development--such as land ownership--are discussed. Sensible pricing policies and restructuring agricultural markets are recommended for developing economies. The authors also analyze the relationship between population size and food supply and agricultures place in international trade. Finally micro and macro planning for agriculture are considered including the merits of the Soviet "tribute" model and the Chinese model; input-output analysis for agricultural planning; and cost-benefit analysis for project evaluation. (authors modified)

Tractorization in India : Dispelling some myths

The pa per challenges the conventional belief that tractorization in developing societies with surplus agricultural labour would lead to greater unemployment. Based on a study of the post 1960 demand for tractors in India, and an interview survey of about 900 farmers, opinion leaders, and officials of tractor manufacturers, the author concludes that-tractorization leads to replacement of bullock power, not labour power, and that tractorization is essential for bringing to fruition productivity increasing innovations, such as the use of high yield variety seeds. The author finds that there is a gap Between the kinds of tractors produced in the country and those desired by farmers. Neither the type nor size of the holding is an inhibitor of tractor use though socio-cultural reasons may be.

Farmer Education and Farm Efficiency: A Survey

Development strategies increasingly emphasize agricultural development, employment, and equity; it is therefore important to examine the role of education in light of these new emphases. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the conclusions of a number of studies of the effect of a farmer's educational level and exposure to extension services on his productivity. Eighteen studies conducted in low-income countries provided 37 sets of farm data that allow a statistical estimation of the effect of education. The overall conclusion of this paper is that farm productivity increases as a result of a farmer's completing at least 4 additional years of elementary education rather than none. Also, the effects of education were much more likely to be positive in modernizing agricultural environments than in traditional ones.

Surplus Labor in Greek Agriculture, 1953-60.

Surplus Labor in Greek Agriculture, 1953-60.

Regional Aspects of the Problem of Full Employment at Fair Wages

Ever since the late President Roosevelt's declaration that the South constituted the Nation's number one economic problem, evidences of extra-regional concern with happenings in this part of the country have multiplied. The FEPA is the most dramatic current expression of this concern. Leaders of organized labor of necessity must take account of Southern labor standards in formulating their strategy. The CIO is reported to have set aside a million dollars to be spent in the present year in an organizing campaign in the South designed to raise the regional level of wages. Several Administration bills now pending in the Congress point in the same direction. Perhaps the least publicized is the one (HR 4068 and S. 1385) to authorize and provide funds for expanding Federal and state activities designed to encourage the industrialization of underdeveloped areas, in areas with surplus agricultural labor.2 This solicitude is justifiable. Differences in levels of living, particularly as between the Old South, the North and the West, are disquietingly large, too large to be accepted any longer as a matter of course. They weaken national unity in the same way that abject poverty in the so-called backward countries weakens world unity. Dr. W. S. Woytinsky, now with the Social Security Board, has worked out a convenient measure of this gross regional disparity in his Report on Earnings and Social Security in the United States.3 For each of the twelve years, 1929-1940 inclusive, he calculated a ratio obtained by dividing the median per capita income of the five highest ranking states by that of the five lowest ranking states, and also corresponding ratios for all wage earners in covered employment and for wage earners in industry. In 1929 the first ratio stood at 3.46. By 1931, at the depth of the depression, it had increased to 4.64. In 1940 it again stood at the old level, 3.45, to be exact. This meant, on the average, that individuals in the richest states, at the beginning and at the end of this twelve year period, had approximately 3? dollars to every dollar possessed by individuals in the five poorest states. Needless to say, the five poorest states throughout the period were Southern states. For all wage earners, the ratio was 2.07 (1937); for wage earners in industry, it was 1.76 (1935). These last two ratios are very significant. They show that the incomes of Southern wage earners as a whole were substantially