ABSTRACT
The history of every modern country includes an account of how agricultural change occurred. This chapter provides case studies of agricultural modernization that emphasize the political aspects and ingredients of development. Understanding the origins, contents, and impacts of such policies, must be fundamental to understanding agricultural development. Rural modernization is an aspect of the structural transformation of economies, a step in the progression that has led countries and peoples from traditional feudal agrarianism to modern urban industrialism. Traditional fatalism in the countryside tends to give way to awareness and confidence in science applied to agriculture. Agricultural modernization is most readily furthered by agricultural policy when modernization is the goal of such policy. Agricultural production units assume considerable variety, and, although different kinds usually coexist in any country, governments tend to emphasize particular ones as vehicles for development. Farmers' organizations and rural political associations deserve special attention in the analysis of rural modernization.
