AGRICULTURE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The most basic contribution of agriculture to economy is, the supply of foodstuff to the populance, and the provision of employment and the means of livelihood. But beyond these, agriculture also provides raw materials for industry and contributes to the improvement of the nation's foreign exchange through export as well as savings in import.
The issue that people must address themselves, is the role agriculture should play in relation to the other sectors of the economy. In developing agriculture, a nation has several options to follow. It may stress the role of agriculture as an important instrument for sustaining expansion in the non agricultural sector of the economy. A nation can stress agricultural development because it can yield huge sum of money in foreign exchange or because it can absorb abundant cheap labour. Therefore, any country that wants to use agriculture to develop its economy must understand these options before setting up strategies for implementing agricultural policies. Development economist now seem to agree that there are no inherent advantages of manufacturing over agriculture or for that matter, of agriculture over manufacturing. Decisions on the balance of in any development situation should be based on rational grounds in the light of considerations of cost and comparative returns from alternative allocation of national material and human resources. But such decisions should not be based on maxims or arbitrary dogmas and prejudices.

Farmers face certain problems in their march towards self sufficiency in agricultural production. Some farmers are frustrated by the lack of storage facilities for most of their perishable products. Also, they have to put up with inadequate market outlet,or else farmee can be assured of adequate benefits from their labour in the form of enhanced incomes, they will be much discouraged and their efforts towards higher productivity will seem pointless. These problems appear to have come to a head with the recent death of the ineffective commodity boards.

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Natural soil

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