Rice Village Saga

Waves of modernizing forces, such as the commercialization of new technology, have been pressing major change upon rural communities in the Third World. But has modernization created greater poverty and inequality? A data set generated from eleven surveys during 1966-87 in a typical rice village in the Philippines, illustrates a pattern of socio economic change shared by many lowland rice areas in the Philippines as well as in other Asian economies. The authors present the lessons drawn from 30 years of empirical research.

'Provides a microscopic view of the process by which agricultural production systems, village community institutions and rural people's economic well-being have changed under the pressure of modernizing forces since 1996...(and) a unique dataset with tables and figures generated from many surveys in a typical Laguna de Bay village.' - AgraFood Asia

YUJIRO HAYAMI is Professor of International Economics at Aoyama-Gakuin University and author of a number of studies of agriculture and economic development, among them, Agricultural Development (with V. Ruttan), Anatomy of Peasant Economy, Asian Village Economy at the Crossroads (with M. Kikuchi), and Economic Development: From the Poverty to the Wealth of Nations. His previous appointments include Professor of International Economics at Tokyo Metropolitan University and Agricultural Economist at the International Rice Research Institute, the Philippines.MASAO KIKUCHI is Professor of Agricultural Economics at Chiba University and the author of Asian Village at the Crossroads (with Y. Hayami). His previous appointments include Assoc. Ag. Economist at the International Rice Research