Chapter 1: Employment, productivity, and trade in developing-country agriculture

Agriculture employs more than a billion people in developing countries. In lowand middle-income countries, the agricultural sector tends to be the primary source of employment. Productivity increases in the agricultural sector through the use of more efficient inputs and better technology can not only raise agricultural output but also improve the work conditions of agricultural workers. More broadly, higher agricultural productivity is considered to be a key driving force of structural transformation and economic development. Trade policy and trade flows can have an important impact on both employment and productivity in the agricultural sector. Trade also affects access to agricultural products, whether produced domestically or abroad, in various ways. Thus, the links between employment, productivity, and trade in agriculture are crucial to understanding why policies related to agriculture are often considered sensitive, why the agricultural sector remains controversial in trade negotiations, and why agriculture is at the heart of the development debate. This chapter provides an overview of the characteristics of and trends in agricultural trade and employment in developing countries. We also look at the relationship between productivity and employment in the sector. By focusing on these topics, this survey contributes to the broad literature on the role of agriculture in development and the more specific literature on linkages between trade and employment in developing countries.2 The agricultural sector has fallen in and out of favour among development thinkers and policy-makers several times in the last six decades. In the 1950s and

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