An Emerging Agricultural Problem in High-Performing Asian Economies
Policies to tax farmers in low-income countries and policies to subsidize them in high-income countries have been identified as a major source of the disequilibrium of world agriculture. Recently, as many high-performing economies in Asia advanced...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2007/08/8087029/emerging-agricultural-problem-high-performing-asian-economies http://hdl.handle.net/10986/7271 |
| Summary: | Policies to tax farmers in low-income
countries and policies to subsidize them in high-income
countries have been identified as a major source of the
disequilibrium of world agriculture. Recently, as many
high-performing economies in Asia advanced from the
low-income to the middle-income stage through successful
industrialization, they have been confronted with the
problem of a widening income gap between farm and non-farm
workers corresponding to rapid shifts in comparative
advantage from agriculture to manufacturing. In order to
prevent this disparity from culminating in serious social
and political instability, policies have been reoriented
toward supporting the income of farmers. At the same time,
governments in middle-income countries must continue to
secure low-cost food for the urban poor who are still large
in number. The need to achieve the two conflicting goals
under the still weak fiscal capacity of governments tends to
make agricultural policies in the middle-income stage
tinkering and ineffective. Greater research inputs in this
area are called for in order to prevent the growth momentum
of high-performing economies in Asia from being disrupted by
political crises. |
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