The Development of Rural People: Myths and Approaches (The Quaid-i-Azam Lecture)

Most rural populations in underdeveloped countries are poor,no matter how one defines poverty. The rural poor are neither ahomogeneous group, nor is the incidence of poverty equally distributedamong them. They do, however, share the underlying causes of theirpoverty. Landlessness (or absence of productive land) and poor prospectsof employment at low wage rates are among the major factors. In someregions, the natural and physical environment exacerbates the conditionsof poverty, even if the poor have reasonable entitlements to land. Theprospects of improved living conditions for the rural poor depend onmany factors. The major ones seem to be (a) population growth, (b)technical progress, (c) markets, and (d) public policy environment. Thecontribution of each of these factors is not easy to identify, becausethey act on the human condition in an interdependent and complex way. Inmost underdeveloped countries, the forces of market and governmentpolicies tend to work against the rural poor.