Deck 9: Agricultural Transformation and Rural Development  

Question 1

What are the key characteristics of the agrarian system in Asia that distinguish it from that of Latin America? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

Land fragmentation, greater population density and absentee landlords.

Question 2

Explain the role of risk and uncertainty in an analysis of the economic behavior of peasant farmers. What kinds of questions does this analysis enable us to answer?

Answer 2

Answers may be expected to vary according to lecture topics, with some discussion of why peasant production decisions are rational. See the section in the text that discusses sharecropping.

Question 3

Describe briefly five major characteristics or problems of developing countries' agricultural sectors. Make reference to specific countries or regions where you can.

Answer 3

Answers may be expected to vary according to lecture topics, and might include a discussion of land ownership, available inputs, credit access, training programs, etc.

Question 4

In Bangladesh, the government guarantees rice farmers that it will buy rice at a specific price. Explain the costs and benefits to farmers in good and bad harvest years.

Question 5

It is important to place particular stress on the role of women in rural development programs because

A)women have received less training in the past.
B)women perform a large majority of the work in the rural sector.
C)women tend to allocate more resources to their children's health and education
D) All of the above.

Question 6

What is the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa and who are its primary supporters?

Question 7

What are the implications for a successful agricultural development strategy of the finding that women perform 60 percent to 90 percent of all work in the traditional rural areas?

Question 8

Which of the following is an important factor in the success of agrarian land reform policies?

A)The introduction of sharecropping
B)The introduction of tenant farming
C)Farmer training programs
D) The introduction of more capital intensive methods

Question 9

What are the primary determinants of agricultural labor productivity?

Question 10

What are some of the specific policies aimed at improving the productivity of women farmers in Kenya?

Question 11

What is (are) the key characteristic(s) of the agrarian system in sub-Saharan Africa?

Question 12

Women bear a disproportionate burden in the agrarian system of sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America. In addition, their productivity is low. Explain these statements with specific examples from individual developing economies. What measures/policies have been implemented to deal with these two issues? Once again discuss with specific examples from individual developing economies.

Question 13

Explain the concept, goals, and methods of integrated rural development.

Question 14

Is sharecropping economically efficient or inefficient? Explain.

Question 15

Explain the case for land reform in Latin America. Are there any potential negative effects? What steps could be taken to address these effects?

Question 16

An agrarian system refers to

A)the pattern of land ownership.
B)the type of crops grown.
C)the processing of agricultural commodities.
D) an economy that has no industry.

Question 17

Critically evaluate the following statement: Government policies to keep the price at which staple foods are bought and sold low helps to reduce poverty and inequality.

Question 18

Crops produced entirely for the market are known as

A)basic crops.
B)mixed crops.
C)hybrid crops.
D) cash crops.

Question 19

The primary goal of an agricultural extension service is to

A)bring new areas under cultivation.
B)increase the yield per hectare.
C)introduce land reform.
D) assist rural-urban migration.

Question 20

What role should the governments play with respect to the agricultural sector in developing countries in their attempts to alleviate poverty?

Question 21

In South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, about what share of output is contributed by agriculture?

A)one tenth
B)one fifth
C)two fifths
D) one half

Question 22

The system of land tenure in which tenant farmers pay a fixed share of their crop to landowners ?is called

A)communal farming.
B)collective farming.
C)latifundio-minifundio system.
D) sharecropping.

Question 23

A program through which new ideas, methods, and advice are offered to farmers to increase farm yields is known as

A)agricultural extension.
B)agricultural mechanization.
C)an agrarian system.
D) land reform.

Question 24

In South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, about what share of the labor force works in agriculture?

A)one tenth
B)one third
C)one half
D) two thirds

Question 25

Absentee landowners characterize the agrarian system of

A)Asia.
B)Latin America.
C)Sub-Saharan Africa.
D) All of the above.

Question 26

During the 1990s, food production increased faster than population in all regions of the developing world except

A)Latin America.
B)East Asia.
C)Sub-Saharan Africa.
D) None of the above.

Question 27

In a world of perfect certainty, sharecropping would be less efficient than a farm owner working his own farm because

A)sharecroppers receive only half of their marginal product.
B)paying a worker a wage gives him or her an incentive to shirk.
C)sharecroppers are exploited by landlords.
D) renting farmland concentrates risk on the renters.
E) All of the above.

Question 28

In which of these developing regions has food production per capita steadily fallen over the last quarter century?

A)Africa
B)East Asia
C)South Asia
D) Latin America

Question 29

The African agrarian system is characterized by

A)absentee landlords.
B)a dual agrarian system known as latifundio-minifundio.
C)land fragmentation.
D) shifting cultivation.

Question 30

Sharecropping can be best understood as

A)a type of agreement preferred by peasants.
B)a type of agreement preferred by landlords.
C)a compromise between peasant and landlord preferences.
D) a type of agreement preferred by neither but given by tradition.