Agricultural Development Assistance: A Primer

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Agricultural Development Assistance A Primer

• Michael R. Dicks
• michael.dicks_at_okstate.edu

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A Note on the World Situation

• I need not tell you gentlemen that the world
  situation is very serious. That must be apparent
  to all intelligent people. I think one difficulty
  is that the problem is one of such enormous
  complexity that the very mass of facts presented
  to the public by press and radio make it
  exceedingly difficult for the man in the street
  to reach a clear appraisement of the situation.
  Furthermore, the people of this country are
  distant from the troubled areas of the earth and
  it is hard for them to comprehend the plight and
  consequent reactions of the long-suffering
  peoples, and the effect of those reactions on
  their governments in connection with our efforts
  to promote peace in the world.

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A Note on the World Situation

• I need not tell you gentlemen that the world
  situation is very serious. That must be apparent
  to all intelligent people. I think one difficulty
  is that the problem is one of such enormous
  complexity that the very mass of facts presented
  to the public by press and radio make it
  exceedingly difficult for the man in the street
  to reach a clear appraisement of the situation.
  Furthermore, the people of this country are
  distant from the troubled areas of the earth and
  it is hard for them to comprehend the plight and
  consequent reactions of the long-suffering
  peoples, and the effect of those reactions on
  their governments in connection with our efforts
  to promote peace in the world.
• Speech Delivered by General George Marshall at
  Harvard University on June 5, 1947

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The Current Dilemma

• The town and city industries are not now
  producing adequate goods to exchange with the
  food-producing farmer.
• There is a phase of this matter which is both
  interesting and serious. The farmer has always
  produced the foodstuffs to exchange with the city
  dweller for the other necessities of life. This
  division of labor is the basis of modern
  civilization. At the present time it is
  threatened with breakdown.
• Meanwhile people in the cities are short of food
  and fuel. So the governments are forced to use
  their foreign money and credits to procure these
  necessities abroad. This process exhausts funds
  which are urgently needed for reconstruction.

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How we got Here

• Marshall Plan worked well Europe and Japan
• Development effort in India worked well
• Thus, this development strategy is correct and
  applicable everywhere U.S. State Department

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The Development Paradigm

• World is split between developed and
  underdeveloped.
• Development is easily obtained in developed
  countries if sound economic policy is followed.
• Development is possible in underdeveloped
  countries if a sound economic policy is followed
  and the missing ingredients are added.
• The missing ingredients are knowledge, capital
  (assets) and trained labor. These can be
  supplied through direct transfer, indirect
  transfer, or capacity transfer.

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The standard practice cookie cutter approach

• Identify the missing ingredient
• Transfer it from the developed to underdeveloped
  country
• Follow the 5-7 year development plan

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Failure of the Cookie Cutter

• Misdiagnoses of the missing ingredient
• Imposing culturally incorrect time paths
• Selection of incorrect transfer mechanism
• Inability to forecast exogenous events
• Unrealistic expectations

No Plan can be carried out without the people and
institutions necessary for implementation
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Five Decades of Failure

• A blood transfusion works to revive a patient
  that is short of blood, but not one short of a
  brain or heart.
• diagnose the cause of UNDERDEVELOPMENT (poverty)
  correctly - for each polity

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Causes of Poverty

• The people are poor because they prefer it that
  way.
• The country is naturally poor.
• The country is poor because it has been kept in a
  state of colonial oppression.
• Poverty is the consequence of class exploitation.
• Poverty is caused by insufficient capital.
• Overpopulation is the cause of poverty.
• Poverty is caused by incompetent economic policy
• Poverty is caused by ignorance.
• Conflict is the source of poverty
• Transfer of technology has been slow, incomplete
  or ineffective.

What evidence would it take to prove your beliefs
wrong?
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The Common Denominator

• People no improvement is possible with
  unimproved people and advance is certain when
  people are liberated and educated.
• John Kenneth Galbraith

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People

• George Ayittey, calls The Cheetah Generation in
  his book Africa Unchained. 
• the cheetahs know that many of their current
  leaders are hopelessly corrupt, and their
  governments are rotten and commit human rights
  violations.  They brook no nonsense about the
  corruption, inefficiency, ineptitude, or
  incompetence.  They understand and stress
  transparency, accountability, human rights, and
  good governance, innovation, entrepreneurship and
  self reliance 
• Africa will change when Africans change it.  Not
  Americans.  Not foreign aid.  Our responsibility
  is to provide the opportunity to obtain knowledge
  and critical thinking skills.  The Africans have
  to make the commitment to becoming a cheetah. 
  Creativity is a decision.

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Development is a process

• At each stage there is an appropriate policy for
  further advance.
• First is an educated core that can produce a
  public administration and develop the
  institutions needed to secure development.
• Next is an educated populace that understands the
  rewards to labor and the benefits of
  specialization and trade.
• Capital is only effective in the later stages
  (counterproductive in the early stages)

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Four choices in development assistance

• Non-interference - provide security and allow
  development to occur naturally.
• Cookie Cutter - accurately determine the current
  stage of development, causes for underdevelopment
  and provide prescriptive inputs.
• Induce innovation by providing a reward structure
  that encourages a specific output and allow
  development to occur.
• Peace Corps strategy live among the people, in
  their environment and allow them to select the
  traits they consider useful.

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Induced Innovation
A need Supported by knowledge Produces a new
outcome
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Induced Innovation

• Necessity is the mother of invention (county
  fairs improved livestock genetics)
• What would you attempt to do if you knew you
  could not fail? (risk averse poverty reduces
  innovation)
• The Reasonable man accommodates himself to the
  ways of the world. The unreasonable man attempts
  to get the world to accommodate itself to his
  ways. Progress depends on the unreasonable man.
  (Social structure unreasonable man dies early
  in many societies)

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Induced Innovation

• Incentives
• Emulate
• Win
• Solve
• Disincentives
• Social norms
• Loss
• Failure

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Development Rules for effective planning

• Be pragmatic (beliefs dont matter)
• Target plan to the current level of development
  (Fall of USSR)
• Strategy is important (food production, hungry
  and storage)
• Set clear targets and expectations (personal
  responsibility vs. macro)
• Manage only where management is required
  (Diversity enables creativity, allow it to work)

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The Prime Directive

• As the right of each sentient species to live in
  accordance with its normal cultural evolution is
  considered sacred, interference with the normal
  and healthy development of life and culture is
  prohibited. Such interference includes
  introducing superior knowledge, strength, or
  technology to a society incapable of handling
  such advantages wisely.

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My Own Thoughts

• I only know what didnt work and why!
• Rarely an answer to your development question
• Very few successful projects
• Best strategy is cross between Peace Corps, Prime
  Directive and Induced Innovation Induce action
  without anyone knowing it.
• Enjoy the experience and learn why.

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Good Luck