Running Head: Agricultural Development

forthcoming in 2010. Abstract: This article strategically surveys the past century’s literature on agricultural development. We organize the discussion around three “grand themes ” that reveal the richness of agricultural development as an intellectual endeavor. First we explore the role of agriculture in the broader development process from a macroeconomic and political economy perspective. We then examine the role of technological and institutional change in successful agricultural development. Finally, the focus turns to a microeconomic perspective on agricultural household decision making and the problems of imperfect and missing markets, asymmetric information and transactions costs that lead to widespread apparent inefficiency and disequilibrium