Lecture 1
Concept of Rural Development:
Theories and Approaches
Dr. Pankaj Kumar
Introduction
Globally, poverty still has a rural face. Three quarters
of the world’s two billion poor live in rural regions,
where poverty manifests itself in factors other than
simply low incomes.
The poor lack access to clean water, educational
opportunities, health services and support from
the government.
Poverty also has a negative impact on social relations
and it puts human lives at risk through
environmental hazards.
• In an agrarian country, rural development is of prime
importance. There is no national development without
rural development.
• Dudley Seer says that the questions to ask about a
country‟s development are: What has been happening
to poverty? What has been happening to
unemployment? What has been happening to
inequality?
If all three of these have declined from high levels, then
beyond doubt this has been a period of development
for the country concerned.
Rational of Rural Development
Rational for rural development appears to have emerged out of
the non-applicability of the percolation theory of economic
development, urban bias of development and consequent spectre
of poverty and unemployment in rural areas.
The World Development Report 1990 rightly observes, “Poverty
as measured by low income tends to be at its worst in rural areas,
even allowing for the often substantial differences in cost of
living between town and countryside. The problems of
malnutrition, lack of education, low life expectancy, and substandard housing are also, as a rule, more severe in rural areas.
The importance of rural poverty is not always understood partly
because the urban poor are more visible and more vocal than their
rural counterparts.
The International Labour Organisation and Asian
Development Bank Studies and World Development Reports
highlighted the problems of rural unemployment and related
poverty problems.
Despite substantial and impressive increases in food and
overall agricultural outputs in some regions of a number of
developing countries, the plight of landless labourers and
small farmers has not improved significantly.
Chinese success in eliminating destitute and unemployment
through a system of communes attracted the attention of
policy-makers around world. Government and international
agencies started a search for alternatives to collectivist models;
this led to many ‘reformist’ experiments in rural development.
Most social and economic indicators such as mortality, life
expectancy, primary enrollment rate, income, physical
infrastructure, social services and literacy consistently show
that rural areas compare unfavourably with urban areas.
The question of rural development in the developing
countries has assumed importance and attracted a lot of
attention of researchers and policy-makers not only on
account of economic and demographic consideration like
vast population but also on account of political importance
of rural electorate in a democratic setting.
Rural + Development
• The rural is the place where the ongoing encounter,
interaction and mutual transformation (in short: the
co-production) of man and living nature is located.
This encounter occurs through a wide range of
different practices, which are spatially and temporally
bounded. These include, agriculture, forestry, fishing,
hunting, rural tourism, rural sports and living in the
countryside (Van der Ploeg,1997).
• Development is not purely an economic phenomena but
rather a multi –dimensional process involving reorganisation and re-orientation of entire economic and
social system.
Development is process of improving the quality
of all human lives with three equally important
objectives:
•
raising peoples living levels
•increasing peoples freedom to choose
•creating condition conducive to the growth of
people’s self –esteem
Todaro…
Concept of Rural Development
Rural development is a concept, a phenomenon, a
strategy and a discipline.
As a concept, it connotes overall development of rural
areas with a view to improving the quality of life of
rural people. In this sense, it is a comprehensive and
multidimensional concept and encompasses the
development of agriculture and allied activities --village and cottage industries and crafts, socioeconomic infrastructure, community services and
facilities, and above all, human resources in rural
areas.
As a phenomenon, it is the result of interactions
between
various
physical,
technological,
economic, socio-cultural, and institutional factors.
As a strategy, it is designed to improve the
economic and social well-being of a specific group
of people --- the rural poor.
As a discipline, it is multidisciplinary in nature
representing an intersection of agricultural,
social,
behavioural,
engineering,
and
management sciences.
Definition of Rural Development
“ Rural Development is a strategy to enable a specific group of
people, poor rural women and men, to gain for themselves
and their children more of what they want and need. The
group includes small scale farmers, tenants, and the
landless.” Chambers (1983).
“A process leading to sustainable improvement in the quality of
life of rural people, especially the poor”. Singh (1999).
According the World Bank (1997) “Sustainable Rural
Development can make a powerful contribution to four critical
goals of poverty reduction, wider shared growth, household,
national, and global food security and sustainable natural
resource management.” (World Bank, 1997).
“The process of rural development may be compared with
a trend in which each coach pushes the one ahead of it
and is in turn pushed by the one behind, but it takes a
powerful engine o make the whole train move. The
secret of success in development lies in identifying and,
if needed, developing a suitable engine to attach to the
train. There are no universally valid guidelines to
identify appropriate engines of growth, if at all they
exist. It is a choice which is influenced by time, space
and culture.”
Evolution of Economic Development Theories
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Pre-classical (16th to Late 18th Century)
Classical Economics (1776s-1870s)
Neo-Classical Economics (1870s-1930s)
Keynesian Economics (1930s-1970s)
Marxian Economics (1950s-1970)
Development Economics (1940s-1990s)
Neo-Lliberalism (1990s onwards)
 Kindly note that the timeline does not necessarily imply loss of significance
of a particular theory.
Meaning of Development over Time
Period
Perspectives
Meaning of Development
1800
Classical Political Economy
Remedy for progress, catching up
1870
Latecomers
Industrialisation, catching up
1850
Colonial economics
Resource management, trusteeship
1940
Development economics
Economic growth-industrialisation
1950
Modernization Theory
Growth, political and social modernisation
1960
Dependency Theory
Accumulation-national, autocentric
1970
Alternative Development
Human flourishing
1980
Human Development
Capacitation, enlargement of peopl’s choices
1980
Neoliberalism
Economic growth, structural reform,
deregulation, liberalisation, privatisation
1990
Post development
Authoritarian, Disaster management
2000
Millenium Development
Goals
Structural Reform
Approaches to rural development
Rural development is characterised by a mix of theory
and practice: “that is both ideas about how
„development‟ should or might occur, and real world
efforts to put various aspects of development into
practice.” (Potter, 2002: 61).
Histories of thinking about rural development often
attempt to periodise different approaches and key ideas
by decades. In part these reflect the preoccupations of
the four UN development decades which commenced
in the 1960s. Hence it is often said that the:

1960‟s are associated with modernisation approaches
emphasising technology transfer.

1970‟s are associated with large scale state development
interventions and integrated rural development programmes.

1980‟s are associated with market liberalisation and attempts
to roll back the state.

1990‟s are characterised as being strongly process focused
with an emphasis on participation and empowerment within
a context of diversifying rural livelihood opportunities. By
end of 1990s a more balanced approach had started to
emerge but there remains no agreement worldwide on how
to get the right mix.
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2000‟s have a focus on poverty eradication, reinvigoration
of small holder agriculture, sustainable farming systems and
the location of producers within global value chains.
However Ellis and Biggs caution that rural policies have not
evolved in such a neat, linear and schematic manner and that
“there are leads and lags in the transmission of new ideas
across space and time.” (Ellis & Biggs, 2001)
The table below (adapted from a Ellis and Biggs) provides an
chronology of the changing thinking and approaches
internationally to rural development.
1950s
Approaches to rural
development
Commentary
Modernisation
Modernisation theory held that the small scale subsistence
sector had little potential for improved productivity or
growth. The development of agriculture could only be
stimulated by investment in large scale mono crop estates
and plantations. Large farms were perceived to be more
efficient than small farms as a consequence of economies of
scale.
Dual economy
Dual economy models posited the parallel operations of a
relatively advanced sector and a relatively backward sector
alternatively characterised as capitalist and subsistence,
formal and informal, modern and traditional. (Fields, 2007)
Community development
Community development approaches were dominant in this
decade. These aimed to mobilise rural communities for
development. However at the time this approach was
primarily fuelled by US foreign policy priorities and became
regarded as an intervention to counter the spread of
communism (Holdcroft, 1976).
1960s
Approaches to rural
development
Commentary
‘Green Revolution”
Technology transfer
Technology transfer focused on large scale, input intensive
agriculture based on packages of higher yielding hybrid
seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, mechanisation and post harvest
technologies which came to be known as the Green
Revolution.
Agricultural extension,
The origins of agricultural extension were based in methods
to try to get rural farmers to adopt new technologies and
farming practices. In this period extension largely ignored
local and indigenous knowledge, farming systems and tenure
arrangements. It also targeted men overlooking that much
agricultural work was done by women
The changing perception
of rural people as rational
managers of risk and
change
Research into farming systems changed the perception of
rural people who had been characterised as ‘incurably lazy’
and resistant to change. Small farmers were now seen to be
behaving in an economically rational way when they rejected
improvements which they perceived to be too risky.
1970s
Approaches to rural
development
Commentary
Redistribution with
growth,
A joint IDS/World Bank study in 1972 entitled Redistribution
with Growth conceded that,“It is now clear that more than a
decade of rapid growth in underdeveloped countries has been
of little or no benefit to perhaps a third of their population.” It
examined ways in which resources could be transferred from
wealthy groups to poorer groups in society by means of:
•direct transfer of income from richer to poorer groups
•targeted investments in agriculture, education and health
which would increase the productive capacity, production
and incomes of the poorer groups
•redistributing land or other assets in favour of poorer
groups. (Jolly, 2006)
Promotion of a basic
needs approach,
A shift of emphasis towards social services and transfer
payments, designed to help the poor, and an extension of
"new style" projects in nutrition, health and education.
1970s contd…
Approaches to rural
development
Commentary
Large scale integrated
rural development
programmes,
The 1970’s was also characterised by large scale, complex,
state led, top down, blueprint approaches to rural
development. integrated rural development projects were
often too complex and overwhelmed the management
capacity of state institutions. Many became technocratic and
remote from local people’s needs.
Limits to growth – World
Conservation Strategy
The limits to growth debate began in the 1970’s. This
assumed that there were direct linkages between population
growth, poverty and environmental degradation. The debate
promoted ‘disaster narratives’ which cast the poor as
destroying the environment while ignoring the
disproportionately large, wasteful and unsustainable use of
resources by industrialised countries.
1980s
Approaches to rural
development
Commentary
The advent of World Bank
led economic “structural
Adjustment” and market
liberalisation.
The emergence of neo liberal economic policies and created
the impetus for the emergence of structural adjustment
programmes (SAP). “As of the late 1970s, the WB began to
lend money preconditional upon economic reforms referred
to as the Washington Consensus, and other donors followed
its lead soon after”. (Aubut, 2004) These reforms based on
deregulation, liberalization and fiscal discipline, were
designed to engineer a policy environment which would be
conducive to market liberalisation, economic growth and
development.
The shrinking state and
the rise of international
development NGOs.
At the United Nations, from 41 NGOs granted consultative
status by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 1948,
and 377 in 1968, the number of NGOs in consultative status
has now expanded to over 1,550. The significant rise of nonstate actors in development has its roots here and in the
process of ‘neoliberal destatisation’ and accelerated
globalisation associated with the rise of neoliberalism in
subsequent decades (McArthur, 2008)
1980s contd…
Approaches to rural
development
Initial emphasis on
participatory research
methods in the form of
Rapid Rural Appraisal.
Commentary
During the late 1970’s and 1980’s there was an increasing
focus on approaches and methods to enable outside
professionals to better understand rural realities. This saw a
shift to qualitative and participatory research methods and an
increasing awareness of the value of indigenous technical
knowledge.
Focus on understanding
Interventions
to
promote Environment and
the functioning of existing drought
mitigation
and sustainability
farming systems.
household food security.
1990s
Approaches to rural
development
Commentary
Structural adjustment
The 1990’s saw the peaking of SAPs with a particular focus on
former communist bloc countries in ‘transition’. These
programmes were increasingly associated with high social
and environmental costs and have been criticised for turning
“developing countries into amenable players in the
globalising system of free trade and investment.”(Carley &
Christie, 2000: 107)
Good governance
In combination with the post-Washington Consensus and the
focus on institutions and public sector management in the
1990s, a new policy agenda was formulated focusing on a
more selective allocation of aid based on the quality of
governance. The WB characterised good governance as: “the
manner in which power is exercised in the management of a
country’s economic and social resources for development.”
OECD countries prioritised four elements: the rule of law,
public sector management, control of corruption, and
reduction of military spending.
1990s contd…
Approaches to rural
development
Poverty reduction
Participatory rural
appraisal
Commentary
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) were introduced in
1999 by the World Bank and the IMF as a new framework
(the successor to SAPs) to enhance domestic accountability
for poverty reduction reform efforts; a means to enhance the
coordination
of
development
assistance
between
governments and development partners; and a precondition
or access to debt relief and concessional financing from both
institutions’ (World Bank)
Participatory approaches placed new emphasis on how rural
people compare options, minimise risk, adapt practices and
seek information (Garforth & Harford, 1997). There was
increasing recognition of local knowledge and agency through
processes of participatory research and planning (Robert
Chambers, 1997)
1990s contd…
Approaches to rural
development
Commentary
Actor oriented rural
development
There was a shift in emphasis to an ‘endogenous
development paradigm’ which was premised on development
originating from within a social system as opposed to
modernisation with its emphasis on imported models and
expertise. Actor oriented approaches emphasised the
importance of participation, the empowerment of local
actors and unlocking of local resources.(Nemes, 2005)
Environment and
sustainability
There was increasing recognition of the contribution that
environmental goods and services make to livelihoods of poor
rural households and the rise of triple bottom line
environmental accounting. Emphasis shifted to improved
management of the ecosystems that produce these goods
and services to increase household incomes of the poor.
Community based natural resource management and comanagement of environmental resources gained ascendance.
2000s
The current decade has been characterised by flux and fragmentation in development
thinking and rural development policy despite the overarching focus of attaining the
Millennium Development Goals.
Approaches to rural
development
Commentary
Sustainable livelihoods
The SL approach recognises the different livelihood sources of
the poor, highlights shocks and stresses which impact on
these and the enabling factors which enhance them. It does
not automatically cast rural people in the role of farmers.
“Diversity is the watchword, and livelihoods approaches have
challenged fundamentally single-sector approaches to solving
complex rural development problems. The appeal is simple:
look at the real world, and try and understand things from
local perspectives”. (Scoones, 2009)
Millennium Development
Goals, country ownership
and good governance
The Millennium Declaration in 2000 set 2015 as the target
date for achieving most of the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs), which aim to halve extreme poverty in all its
forms.
2000s contd…
Approaches to rural
development
Commentary
Decentralisation
Linked with the good governance agenda has been the
concept of democratic decentralisation. This involves the
restructuring of authority so that there is a system of coresponsibility between institutions of governance at the
central, regional and local levels according to the principle of
subsidiarity (UNDP) . Democratic decentralization is premised
on new local institutions being representative and
accountable to local populations and having a secure and
autonomous domain of powers to make and implement
meaningful decisions.
Sector wide development
approaches
The appearance of sector wide approaches is closely linked
with recent shifts in donor thinking emphasising the
importance of ‘country ownership of donor’ programmes. It
also marks a shift from project funding to the development of
sectoral policy and strategy.
2000s contd…
Approaches to rural
development
Commentary
Social protection
The focus on Social Protection (SP) and direct cash transfers is
about putting money directly in the pockets of the poor to
invest and use at their discretion. This helps people to
manage risk and vulnerability and “enables the very poor to
share in the benefits of economic growth since many will not
be reached by “trickle-down”.” Direct cash transfers are
starting to replace traditional food aid and famine relief
measures (Peppiatt, Mitchell, & Holzmann, 2001)
Poverty eradication
Progress in addressing poverty has been slow, resulted in the
24th special session of the General Assembly setting targets
to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty by
one half by 2015. This target has been endorsed by the
Millennium Summit as Millennium Development Goal 1.
These goals are receiving international attention as part of
the Second United Nations Decade for the Eradication of
Poverty (2008-2017),
2000s contd…
Approaches to rural
development
Commentary
ICTs for development
Reviews of ICT projects in rural areas indicate measurable
impacts from ICT projects focusing on price information and
market access. (IICD, 2006) However they also caution that
technological solutions in isolation are doomed to failure in
the same way that mechanisation and large scale
infrastructure development schemes are associated with
failure in development practice.(Ibid)
Climate change
During this decade there has been a mounting awareness of
the challenges posed by climate change and its impacts poor
and vulnerable households.
Fair trade
The increasing dominance of global supermarket chains over
the world food economy has been highlighted as one the
main consequences of a globalising agriculture. These
initiatives aim to ensure a fair return to the producers.
Fairtrade really took off in the late 1980’s with the launch of
the first Fairtrade label in Holland marketing coffee from
small growers in Mexico.
The chronology above highlights the breadth and
diversity of elements associated with the rural
development agenda. The chronology excludes
changing approaches to rural service provision,
primary health care, HIV/AIDs and malaria
mitigation, education and transport – all key
components of rural development initiatives.
Theories of Rural Development in
India
• An analysis of the rural development programmes so far
implemented in India reveal that there are at least four sets of
theories implicit in them
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First on the basis of the coverage of the programme
Second on the basis of the content
Third on the basis of administrative content
Fourth on the basis of spread of effects of development
1.Balanced and unbalanced theories
Sectors of economy are interdependent and complementary to
each other . Their simultaneous development supports each
others development .
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Community Development programme (1952)
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Total development of material and human resources of
rural areas.
Covered all aspect of village life including agriculture,
health, education, rural industries, transport and
communication, social welfare and children
Immediate objective was raising agri production
Integrated Rural Development Programme
The theory of unbalanced, presupposes that resources in an
economy are always limited. So for proper and effective
utilisation of limited resources, deliberate imbalances are created
initially which ultimately lead to balanced development through a
process of complementarity.
• Grow More Food Compaign(1943)
 indended to increase food production through development of minor irrigation,
land reclamation, etc..
• Intensive Agriculture District Programme (1960)
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known as Package programme
Ford Foundation Expert Team recommendation
initial concentration of development in a particular district/area
benefits would spread to neighboring area/district
Touched only ‘a fringe of the total population’ (Thakurdas committee)
2.Structural and Technological theories
Structural
Socio-economic system and institutions like caste-structure,
custom and practices along with tenurial rights, credits,
marketing institutions explain the extent of exploitation.
During the first two five year plans, greater emphasis was placed
on the structural factor to bring about rural/agricultural
development. Greater emphasis was placed on establishing an
egalitarian society free from exploitation.
From mid-sixties upto the end of seventies, structural theory
become less important and emphasis was placed more on
technological theories.
The most important component of the structural theory were land
reforms of the credit and marketing structure.
• Adversely affected the interest of richer section
• So law framed defectively, executed defectively and interpreted defectively
Technological
Suitable technology could not be developed to bring about
desirable development.
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largely confined to mechanical technology
was not very much suitable to Indian situation
after mid sixties it was largely biological technology
solved the problem of food shortage
increased inter-regional and intra-regional variation
3.Centralised and Decentralized theories
Centralized
Decision making, formulation and administration of programmes
are done by central board or organisation. There is very little
scope for the people to participate in the decision making
process.
There is very little assessment of local resources and local needs
and aspirations.
In Communist countries local level development programmes are
formulated and implemented in a centralized way.
Decentralized
In a democratic society, people’s participation in the decision
making process, formulation and implimentaion is encouraged.
Proper assessment of local resources and needs is made.
Suitable institutions and conventions are built up through which
people give vent to their feelings, opinions and participate in
decision making process.
4.Percolation and Polarization theories
Percolation theory presumes that the benefits of rural
development do not remain concentrated in one place. The
benefits ‘trickle down’ or percolate to neighbouring areas.
This theory may be treated as corollary of the theory of
balanced development.
Polarisation theory, on the other hand, presumes that the benefits
of rural development remain concentrated in the points, where
they originate. These growth-points, rather, suck resources
from the periphery and accentuate the regional imbalances in
economic development.
Percolation and polarisation theories of rural development are
very much akin to Myrdal’s spread-effect and backwash
effects.
Thank You