Agricultural Policies in Developing Countries

This book is about agricultural policies in developing countries. It concerns the methods used by governments to change the ecomonic and social framework within which agricultural production takes place: by influencing the prices of farm inputs and outputs, by modifying agricultural institutions, and by promoting new technologies in agriculture. The book is organized around a central set of eight policy chapters, covering topics of price policy, marketing policy, input policy, credit policy, mechanization policy, land reform policy, and irrigation policy. These chapters are preceded by material covering the nature of policy, a framework for policy analysis, and the principles used by economists to undertake agricultural policy analysis. They are followed by chapters that examine the status of women in agricultural policies, and that summarize aspects of food policy not covered in the main policy chapters.