Open AccessAgricultural Price Policy for Growth (The Distinguishedl Lecture)
Author(s) -
John W. Mellor
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v33i4ipp.497-532
Subject(s) - agriculture , economics , investment (military) , slow growth , price policy , economic policy , agricultural policy , agricultural economics , macroeconomics , political science , geography , politics , law , archaeology
Superb agricultural resources, substantial investment, andrelatively liberal macroeconomic policies have provided Pakistan with ahigh agricultural growth rate and strong multipliers of thatagricultural growth to other sectors of the economy. Those growth ratesand the consequent multipliers could have been much greater. Moretroubling, there are unsustainable elements to the past growth ratesthat are already showing themselves. Thus, without attention to keypolicy issues, Pakistan's agricultural and overall growth rates arebound to decline significantly. Indeed, that decline is alreadyunderway. Correct pricing, investment, and institutional developmentpolicies can reverse that decline and accelerate growth rates wellbeyond those of the past. Agricultural price policy is of centralimportance in its own right and plays an important indirect role in eachof the other key policy areas. Thus, this paper, while concerned withagricultural growth and its multipliers, wraps the discussion aroundprice policy issues.