ISAS Insights

Experience has conclusively established that investments in agriculture made by developing countries are pro-growth and pro-poor.1 Agriculture continues to provide a labour-intensive source of employment, cheap food, raw materials, labour, savings, and the demand for non-agricultural goods. Yet, over the last three decades, there has been a significant systemic bias against the rural economy in the allocation of public resources. This scenario is inefficient because no developed economy of significant size became so without the agricultural sector recording substantial productivity gains.