Human Development in South Asia 2002: Agriculture and Rural Development

Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre’s 2002 Report on Agriculture and Rural Development underlines the imperative of focusing on human-centred agricultural development in South Asia. as agriculture is the backbone of South Asia’s economy and the source of livelihood of two-thirds of South Asia’s population. Despite South Asia’s stunning performance in agriculture during the Green Revolution, the region still hosts some half a billion poor people around the world. The Report argues that South Asia’s strategy of economic growth needs to be reoriented in order to address the needs and concerns of the majority of its people. This is a unique perspective as most analysts tend to be concerned with the growth of per capita output without analysing its source and distribution. This Report looks at the broader policy implications of this delink between government policies and people’s lives. The wealth of data collected for the Report on South Asia’s agriculture will be valuable for policymakers and academic researchers. Human Development in South Asia 2002 has been prepared under the direction of Khadija Haq. President of the Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre. The research was supervised by an Advisory team headed by Sartaj Aziz, with Fateh Chaudhri, A. R. Kemal, Amir Mohammad and S. M. Naseem as members. The research was conducted by a team consisting of Sarfraz Qureshi. Umer Khalid, Zainab Kizilbash, Sadia Malik, Lubna Shahnaz and Hyder Yusafzai. Several South Asian economists assisted in the preparation of the Report, including M. Asaduzzaman. Jayati Ghosh, Yasin Janjua, Saman Kelegama and Madan Pariyar.