Inclusive Development Revisited

Following the sustainable development goals of the United Nations, inclusive development is summarised as ‘leaving no one behind’. And, erroneously, when talking about agricultural development, many scholars and practitioners still interpret inclusive development as if all those currently employed in agriculture must stay there.

From this erreneous belief, two new policy errors derive: that young farmers should stay in agriculture and that agriculture should become sexy to achieve that. And, that an exodus out of agriculture is urbanisation, so that this migration should stop in order to reduce urban congestionation.

However, development is behind the disappearance of most farmers. Only a fraction of the 1.4 billion farmers who are currently employed in agriculture will remain when the economy develops. Developed countries have hardly any farmers. This is largely to do with rising labour, land and capital productivity in agriculture, thanks to new services and manufactured supplies to the farming sector. Continuously, people are moving out of agriculture to find employment in factories, banks or other companies. This structural transformation has already been elaborately theorized and illustrated by Johnston & Kilby in 1978. It continues to happen worldwide and in most countries.

Unemployment, the 21st century plague

From the erroneous idea that all rural dwellers with some land will remain farmers, other incoherent policy recommendations emerge, like the one about youths in agriculture. Due to increasing life expectancy, farmers tend to live longer and therefore stay longer on the farm. This reduces the pace of succession and limits the possibilities for young farmers to start a farm of their own; so many youngsters try their luck in the cities. Not all stay there; about 25% of those who once left return to their homesteads and engage in agriculture again. Contrary to common concern, it is not so much the youngsters leaving agriculture, but those who are returning, that constitute the problem: And this problem is called unemployment, and it is becoming the 21st century’s plague. Job creation outside of agriculture is the number one challenge, particularly in rural areas.

No sexy agriculture for young farmers needed

So, the combination of older farmers staying on the farms and rural youth migrating to cities raises the question of how to make agriculture attractive, even sexier, for young farmers. That, however, is not the issue. Think of a typical rural family of parents with five children, where more than one of the children remains in agriculture. This means, once the parents hand over the farm, a further subdivision of the already small plot must take place. Agricultural development, instead, needs the consolidating of farms and this means that many currently engaged in agriculture must leave the sector and find employment in other sectors - be it manufacturing or services. It also needs succession laws that guarantee the integrity of the farm by handing it to one heir, with compensation for the other siblings. It needs arrangement for children to start managing the farm, long before the parents die.

Rural industrialization

Then again, in the debate, leaving agriculture has become synonymous with migrating to cities. However, the real issue is that structural transformation of the economy – from an agrarian to a modern one - is seeing most people engaged in manufacturing and services. This is where farmers’ organisations come in, as potential drivers for global development, for growth, equality and democracy. Their policy options and concrete actions point to farmer-led rural industrialisation towards cooperatives, creating employment opportunities in rural areas that go beyond the farm. Out of agriculture, with the correct policy measures means rural investments for manufacture and servcies close to the farms. When done by promoting cooperatives, farmers will also mobilize their own labour and capital and thus speed growth and employment creation.