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The false choices of rural development

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Title The false choices of rural development
 
Creator Drachoussoff, V.
 
Description We have received many letters from readers about the article by Mr. Drachoussoff which appeared in the pilot issue of ''SPORE''. For space reasons, we were obliged to make cuts in the text. Because of the positive response to this artic/e, we are pleased to print the main points again, emphasizing those areas discussed by the author of particular relevance to our readers.



National development theories and policies are often put forward in terms of mutually exclusive alternatives. A few examples will illustrate this. Are global policies whose effects would be more thinly spread preferable to intensive local efforts ? Should we be moving towards large scale or small scale projects ? Should technology be developed gradually or revolutionized ? Should we concentrate on the poorest or the most capable ? Should priority be given to towns and industry or countryside and agriculture ?



These are all false dilemmas. Real problems are never as clear cut. There are no yes or no answers but rather yes and no answers, the emphasis differing from case to case.



If they are to work properly in the long run, small scale intensive initiatives have to meet certain conditions



First and foremost, it must be possible to extend and repeat projects. Isolated success stories are doomed to failure.



Secondly, it must be possible for projects to be taken on and managed by local bodies. They must serve in an educational function for the training of extension workers, producers and local dignitaries. They must also be backed up by national or at least local development policies or in other words be part of a wider strategy.



This duality also comes into play in the policies of funding agencies. Some experts recommend concentrating aid on the poor in poor countries. Others argue that below a minimum threshold of natural and human resources, development becomes impossible and outside intervention a permanent and therefore ineffective form of charity



A distinction must be made between cooperation and aid. This aim of cooperation is development and the building up of a mutually beneficial relation-ship. Aid is motivated by a feeling of solidarity with individuals or groups, fear of the destabilizing effect of poverty and despair spreading through the world and hope that successful aid might one day lead to development.



Cooperation and aid are rarely found in their pure states; North-South relations generally consist of different combinations of each. The rationale for aid is that rich societies cannot seal themselves off without losing an essential part of themselves and, sooner or later, their wealth. The justification for cooperation is that evenly balanced relationships are sounder and in the final analysis more beneficial than lop-sided ones and that the development of a few richer Third World countries will allow the latter to do more to help the poorest.



An effective development strategy must therefore combine these two types of intervention. It should include a form of aid with no immediate repercussions which is designed to meet acute crises and natural disasters. Secondly, it should improve the capacity of poor peasants to work, bring about change and organize themselves. Such a strategy should also provide for cooperation with those countries and peoples which are capable of development in the short or medium term. Aid and cooperation become complementary rather than contradictory when they serve to strengthen the weak without paralysing the strong.



Finally, the priority which people now talk about giving to rural development should not be at the expense of the industrial and urban sector which now involves an increasing proportion of the population of Third World countries. The future of the Third World will be played out in the towns as well as in the countryside, in industry as well as in agriculture.



Development is a process of social biology. This empirical approach does not rule out considerations of justice and humanity. Instead it gives them full vent by preventing us from prejudging situations, applying uniform solutions and being too rigid. In development the facts must always reign supreme.



Mr V Drachoussoff is an agronomist and expert in agricultural engineering from Gembloux {Belgium). Between 1940 and 1960 he worked in the Belgian Congo. first for a private firm and then in the administration. He was given the title of honorary d/rector of agriculture. From 1961 to 1982 he was secretary general and then director of the AGRER SA research organisation. Since 1982 Mr Drachoussoff has worked as a consultent
We have received many letters from readers about the article by Mr. Drachoussoff which appeared in the pilot issue of ''SPORE''. For space reasons, we were obliged to make cuts in the text. Because of the positive response to this artic/e, we are...
 
Date 1986
2014-10-02T13:13:05Z
2014-10-02T13:13:05Z
 
Type News Item
 
Identifier Drachoussoff, V. 1986. The false choices of rural development. Spore 2. CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
1011-0054
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/44438
 
Language en
 
Relation Spore
 
Rights Open Access
 
Publisher Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
 
Source Spore