Agricultural Economics in Africa: Trends in Theory and Method
Explicit theory about the process of economic development is notoriously scanty and underdeveloped.** Thus this paper will deal as much with emerging challenges to implicit theorizing and neglected areas in explicit theory as with trends in what explicit theory exists. Although the state of economic theory relevant to the agricultural sector of developing countries still leaves much to be desired, there have been some fascinating trends in the last ten years. Over the same period there have been fundamental changes in methodology as well. The central focus of those concerned with the course of economic change in developing economies is consideration of how the rate of economic development can be effectively increased and maintained. Economists working on the agricultural sector are most interested in theory that deals either with the relationship between change in the agricultural sector and change elsewhere in the economy, or with means of accelerating and sustaining development of the agricultural sector itself, of interest not only because the course of events in agriculture affects aggregate development but also because satisfactory progress in agriculture contributes to national goals other than development. Agricultural development affects development in other sectors of the economy in several ways: through provision of goods and services needed elsewhere in the economy and for export; through generation of rural purchasing power which can be a critical component of the stimuli needed to evoke satisfactory rates of development of other sectors; and through generation of savings, investment, and manpower needed elsewhere. Agricultural
Resource-Centred Rural Development Plans in Nigeria: Policies, Impacts, Challenges and Opportunities
This paper discusses the role and impacts of resource availability in driving rural development in Nigeria. Particular emphasis is focused on understanding how the availability of specific resources in Nigeria’s rural areas have shaped policy discourses, initiation and implementation processes. From the discussion, rural resources have been important in driving rural policy changes both positively and negatively. Agriculturalcentered rural development policies were important in developing the rural areas both at pre-independence and in the period of commercial petroleum oil exploration. However, the commercial exploitation of petroleum resources in the 1970s served to undermine relevant and potential policy drives aimed at developing available rural resources. In this way rural resources have failed to transform into opportunities for development despite its contributions to the national economy. It is the recommendation of this paper that a national diversification be emphasized beyond petroleum oil dependence. More emphasis should be placed on strengthening agricultural productivity as well as exploring other natural resources potentials. These will reposition the rural areas as centers of development activities.
The first ground cricket (Orthoptera: Trigonidiidae: Nemobiinae) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber
Abstract A new genus and species, Birmaninemobius hirsutus gen. et sp. nov., is described on the basis of a well-preserved orthopteran specimen in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber and attributed to the subfamily Nemobiinae (ground crickets) of the family Trigonidiidae (Grylloidea). As the first record of Nemobiinae from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, this new taxon not only provides novel morphological diversity in ground crickets but also indicates that the ground crickets lived in Burma (Tethyan islands) as early as the mid-Cretaceous.