ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the essentiality of agricultural improvement to balanced economic development. The discussion deals primarily with agricultural development in densely populated areas that have the following characteristics: arable land per person of.40 hectare or less, from 60 to 80 percent of the population directly dependent on agriculture, abundance of unskilled labor, and scarcity of capital, and of managerial and technical skills. Efficient use of resources under food-shortage conditions must be viewed from the standpoint of combining the scarce resources with abundant unskilled labor for rapid achievement of maximum food output. Efficient achievement of higher productivity in a densely populated country requires adoption of those combinations of improved technology that will maximize output from scarce capital, management, and technical skills by utilizing the abundance of unskilled labor as productively as possible. The one reason frequently cited as an indication of need for group farming is the lack of technical and managerial skills among operators of small farms.
