ABSTRACT
Rural poverty measured in terms of the proportion and the absolute number of rural population living in deprivation remains staggeringly high in most less developed countries (LDCs). There are a number of poverty characteristics which result from and further contribute to the single problem of rural underdevelopment. Briefly, these attributes or characteristics are widespread undernourishment, ill health, illiteracy, landlessness, low productivity per worker in agriculture, underutilization of the productive capacity of resources in agriculture and gross inequality in land distribution associated with social stratification. The question raised in this paper is: granted that gross inequality in the distribution of land and poverty conditions in rural areas of most LDCs have worsened, how do we explain both the distortion of the comprehensive understanding of rural development problems and the present distortion associated with the shift in the content of aid-giving agencies’ policy prescriptions since 1980?
