The Concept of Integrated Rural Development
Dr. Frithjof Kuhnen
Institut fur Ausländische Landwirtschaft der Universität
Göttingen
1. Introduction
Over the last couple of years, the disappointment over the
results of past development efforts in many countries has
been growing in the world at large. Nobody brought it more
emphatically to the notice of the general public than Robert
McNamara in several of his speeches, culminating in the well-known
statement that, in the 40 developing countries for which data
are available, the upper 20 per cent of the population receives
55 per cent of the national income, while the lowest 20 per_cent
receives 5 per cent only.
This gap between rich and poor has only been widening so
far, and, in many cases, has led to worse conditions for the
poorer segments of the population. The traditional socio-economic
environment of the rural population has often been destroyed
without being replaced by a better alternative. The increasing
population could not be absorbed by the existing rural system,
this leading to massive migration to cities, and resulting,
in many cases, in a virtual breakdown of urban societies.
Measures for increasing agricultural production concentrated
on the improvement of land productivity in the better areas
with larger farms, leaving behind the poorer masses in the
rural areas.
It is noteworthy that the increasing differences between
haves and have-nots generated by past development are not
restricted to the widening gap between rich and poor. The
same growing dualism can be observed between regions within
countries, and, on a world-wide scale, between industrial
and developing countries. Reference is made to the proceedings
of the UNCTAD-conferences.
In the final analysis, the reason for the very unsatisfactory
results of past development efforts seems to lie in the basic
approach. This approach can be characterized as an attempt
to promote development by applying economic principles derived
from experiences in developed countries. It was not fully
realized that the conditions in developing countries were
far more different, as regards for instance factors like
- the rate of population increase,
- the degree of international communication,
- the educational level,
- the availability of new technologies,
- the value system of the population,
to mention only a few examples.
The reassessment of development strategies during the last
years tried to surmount the trial-and-error period and to
use the experience of the past to design a new strategy which,
it is hoped, might yield better results. For the development
of the rural areas, during recent years, the concept of integrated
rural development has been widely accepted, and the aim of
this paper is to introduce this concept and the problems of
its operationalization.
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