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INNOVATION THEORY AND PATTERNS OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT *
Author(s) -
HUMPHREY DAVID H.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
oxford bulletin of economics and statistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.131
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1468-0084
pISSN - 0305-9049
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0084.1974.mp36003004.x
Subject(s) - citation , library science , service (business) , sociology , computer science , marketing , business
The study of innovation in smaliholder agriculture has developed in two major directions: firstly studying the process of adoption and diffusion of innovations, and secondly examination of the effect of income and wealth differentials on the ability to take risks and innovate, and the effect of changing techniques on the distribution of income and wealth in society [11]. The first of these ran into diminishing returns some years ago2 and awareness of the second has only recently become at all widespread and needs further investigation. The purpose of this paper is to discuss an area that has received relatively scant attention; the effect of innovations on patterns of rural development and in particular on output per acre and on labour input per acre and how this will affect the acceptability of the innovation.3 Having outlined the analytical framework, data from a sample of 240 smaliholdings in five different areas of Malawi are examined Results indicate the existence of differing patterns of rural development in these areas the likely causes of which we examined and the implications for rural development policy discussed.