One could, in theory, conceive of a country “specializing” entirely in agriculture and obtaining all its industrial requirements from abroad. But it could never become a high income country simply because technologically developed agriculture could never absorb more than a fraction of the working population on the available land. Though, in all under developed countries the greater part of the working population is occupied in agriculture most of this represents disguised unemployment, a rural community maintains all its members and expects everyone to share in the work. Much the greater part of this labour could be withdrawn from agriculture if alternative employment opportunities were available without any adverse effect, and probably with beneficial effect, on total agricultural output. For the relief of the pressure of labour on the land is itself of the pressure of labour on the land is itself a most potent factor in inducing improvements in technology which raise yields per acre , as well as the yield per man .
These improvements normally require an increase in the capital employed on the land. But the savings necessary for the increase in the capital themselves a by product of reduced population pressure. The reduction in the agricultural population and the increased use of capital in agriculture are thus different aspects of the same process. As there are fewer mouths to feed, the agricultural surplus raises the excess of agricultural production over the self consumption of farming population. The rise in the surplus enables the farmers to plough back a higher proportion of their output in the form of better tools , improved seeds , fertilizers , etc. and such improvements tend to be both labour saving and land saving , they diminish the labour requirements at the same time as they increase the yield of the land .
from above passage we get following information :-
- Better employment opportunities will be the achievement of inducing improvement in technology.
Meaning of difficult words use in passage :
- induce = uplift
- fraction = Part
- riot = disorder