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Agriculture and Economic Development in the Middle East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

Elias H. Tuma*
Affiliation:
University of California at Davis

Extract

Several observations may be safely made regarding agriculture in the Middle East: it has continued to be the major economic sector in the region; it has developed conspicuously in the last two decades although the gains have been seriously diminished by the increase in population; agriculture still has a great potential for change and development, given the natural endowments of the region. The path to such development, if one can be identified, has not been clearly charted in the literature.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Middle East Studies Association of North America 1971

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References

Footnotes

1 For more details: United Nations, Department of Economic Affairs, Land Reform: Defects in Agrarian Structure as Obstacles to Economic Development, New York, 1951Google Scholar; United Nations, Economic and Social Council, “The Impact of Land Reform on Economic and Social Development,” E/CN.5/386, 1965; Tuma, E.H., Twenty-six Centuries of Agrarian Reform, University of California Press, 1965Google Scholar; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agrarian Reform and Economic Growth in Developing Countries, Washington, D.C., March 1962Google Scholar; Stickley, Thomas S., ed., Man, Food, and Agriculture in the Middle East, Symposium Proceedings, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, American University of Beirut, 1969Google Scholar; el-Tanamly, Abdel Moneim, “The Relation between Land Reform in Underdeveloped Countries and Economic Development Programs,” L’Egypte Contemporaine, 284 (April 1956), 89104Google Scholar. More specific discussions include: Paldi, Agad, “Change Through Land Improvement,” New Outlook 10:9, December 1967, 4351Google Scholar; Bank of Libya, “Contribution of Agriculture and Industry to the National Income of Libya,” Monthly Economic Bulletin, 8:3, 1968, 6068Google Scholar; Khan, M.H., The Role of Agriculture in Economic Development: A Case Study of Pakistan, Wageningen, Centre for Agricultural Publications and Documentation, 1966Google Scholar; Said, Y.H., “The Role of Agriculture in the Economic Development of Sudan,” unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1968Google Scholar; Zaki, M.A., “Economic Development in the U.A.R. (Egypt) and the Role of the Agricultural Sector,” unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Ohio State University, 1965.Google Scholar

2 The best sources for quantitative data are the publications of the United Nations and FAO; the U.N. Statistical Yearbook and FAQ Production Yearbook are invaluable, even though they are restricted to official data. A valuable compendium of data which summarizes in table form FAO and other sources is Clawson, Marion, Landsberg, Hans H., and Alexander, Lyle T., The Agricultural Potential of the Middle East, New York: American Elsevier Publishing Company, 1971Google Scholar. See also: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Indices of Agricultural Production, 1959–1968 in Africa and the Near East, Washington, P.C., June 1969Google Scholar; Central Treaty Organization, Economic Division, Economic Data and Development Plans of The CENTO Region Countries: Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, Ankara, March 1965Google Scholar; OECD Development Centre; National Accounts of Less Developed Countries, 1950–1966, 1968Google Scholar. More general information will be found in: Dooran, P. Van, “State-Controlled Changes in Tunisia’s Agrarian Structure,” Tropical Man, 1 (1968), 59108Google Scholar; Van Wersch, Herman J., “Rural Development in Morocco: Operation Labour,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, 17:1, October 1968, 3349CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Issawi, Charles, Egypt in Revolution: An Economic Analysis, Oxford University Press, 1963Google Scholar; Haseeb, K., The National Income of Iraq, 1953–61, Oxford University Press, 1964Google Scholar; Mead, P.C., Growth and Structural Change in the Egyptian Economy, Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1967Google Scholar; IBRD, The Economic Development of Kuwait, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1965Google Scholar; IBRD, The Economic Development of Morocco, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1966Google Scholar; IBRD, The Economic Development of Libya, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1960Google Scholar; IBRD, Tue” Economic Development of Syria, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955Google Scholar; Halevi, Nadav and Klinov-Malul, Ruth, The Economic Development of Israel, Praeger, 1968Google Scholar; Hansen, B. and Marzouk, G.A., Development and Economic Policy in the UAR (Egypt), Amsterdam, North-Holland Publishing Company, 1965Google Scholar; Hansen, B., Economic Development in Syria, RAND Corporation, 1969Google Scholar; Kardouche, G.K., The U.A.K. in Development, Praeger, 1966Google Scholar; Hershlag, Z.Y., Turkey: The Challenge of Growth, Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1968Google Scholar; Conn, E.J., Turkish Economic Social, and Political Change, Praeger, 1970.Google Scholar

3 Index numbers representing these changes will be found in FAQ Production Yearbook, 1969, 29–31.

4 I suspect the figures on Syria are erroneous, but cannot verify this at present; other relevant information will be found in Al-Khuri, F., “Some Features of Migration from the Lebanese Village,” Hiwār, 4–5, 6–1 (1966), 20214Google Scholar; Abdel, M., El Badry, R., “Internal Migration in the U.A.R.,” L’Egypte Contemporaine, 56, 319, January 1965, 3144 (Arabic)Google Scholar; Phillips, Doris G., “Rural-to-Urban Migration in Iraq,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, 7:4, July 1959, 40521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 A very useful study of investment is FAO, Agricultural Capital Formation in Selected Developing Countries, Agricultural Planning Study No. 11, Rome, 1970; also helpful are: Stevens, R.D., “Capital Formation and Agriculture in Some Lebanese Villages,” unpublished ph.D. Dissertation, Cornell, 1959Google Scholar; Shuman, A., “Concerning the Agricultural Financing Policy in Iraq,” Dirāsāt Arabiyyah, 1:4, 1965, 1426Google Scholar; Alnasrawi, A., Financing Economic Development in Iraq. The Role of Oil in a Middle Eastern Economy Praeger, 1967Google Scholar; Tuma, E.H., “Agrarian Reform and Capital Formation,” United Nations and FAO, WLE/66/1, Rome, 1966.Google Scholar

6 On the significance of agriculture in foreign trade see: Clawson, M., et al., op. cit., pp. 9198Google Scholar; Bencheikh, T., “Planification et politique agricole,” Bulletin économique et sociale du Maroc, 31:112–3, pp. 19196Google Scholar; also United Nations, Trade Yearbook, 1969.

7 Most developed countries of Europe were able to develop agriculture only after they permitted a radical reduction of the agricultural labor force to take place, both relatively and absolutely, which by definition meant a big rise in labor productivity and income. See Saab, Gabriel S., “Mechanization and Agricultural Development in the Near East,” L’Observation Economique, Sedes, Paris, 1959Google Scholar; Goueli, A.A., “Mechanization of the Egyptian Agriculture: An Economic Analysis,” Arab Journal, 3:2, 1966, 713.Google Scholar

8 For such queries see: “Wasted Human Resources in the Arab World,” Economie Libanaise et Arabe, 8, September 1958, 18–32 (Arabie); Middle East Economic Digest, 15:26, June 26, 1971; Issawi, Charles, “The Strategy of Land Problems and Policies in the Economy of the Middle East,” Middle East Forum, 42:2, 1966, 1725Google Scholar; Tuma, E.H., “Agrarian Reform and Urbanization in the Middle East,” Middle East Journal, 24:2, 1970, 16377Google Scholar; also, “The Agrarian-Based Development Policy in Land Reform,” Land Economics, 39:3, 1963, 265–273; Al-Zabi, A., “Primary Elements of Development in Various Countries—Agriculture or Industry and Why?” Al-Marifah 5:56 (1966), 416 (Arabic)Google Scholar; Mansfield, P., “Agriculture vs. Industry: Middle Eastern Dilemma or Myth,” Middle East Forum, 43:1 (1967), 4958.Google Scholar

9 According to one observer, economic planning is a stage of development in the middle East, in which some countries find themselves at the present time; Kermani, Taghi T., Economic Development in Action: Theories, Problems, and Procedures as Applied in the Middle East, Cleveland and New York: World Publishing Company, 1967, p. 43 ff.Google Scholar; Lebanon may be the only exception where the only plan, according to one observer, is “no plan”; Ahmad, F., “The Agricultural Problem in Lebanon,” Dirasat Arabiyyah, 1:12, October 1965, 5065 (Arabic).Google Scholar

10 Abouhamad, G., “Les projets agricoles du plan Quinquennal 1965–1969,” Syrie et Monde Arab, 14(1968), 5871Google Scholar. The references on planning are too numerous to mention here; however, a few might be helpful: Baldwin, G.B., Planning and Development in Iran, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1967Google Scholar, especially chapter 5; Ghazi Duwaji, Economic Development in Tunisia, Praeger 1967, chapter 5, especially pp. 100–105; El Mailakh, Ragaei, “The Economics of Rapid Growth: Libya,” Middle East Journal, 23:2 1969, 308320Google Scholar; El-Kammash, Magdi M., Economic Development and Planning in Egypt, Praeger, 1967Google Scholar; Waterson, Albert, Planning in Morocco, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1962Google Scholar; Gittinger, J.P., “Planning and Agricultural Policy in Iran—Program Effects and Indirect Effects,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, 16:1, 1967, 10718CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Abdel Rahman, I.M., “Comprehensive Economic Planning in the U.A.R.,” L’Egypte Contemporaine, 54:313, 544Google Scholar; Simmons, J.L., “Agricultural Development in Iraq: Planning and Management Failures,” Middle East Journal 19:2, 1965, 12940Google Scholar; Weitz, R., ed., Rural Planning in Developing Countries, Report on the second Kehovoth Con erence, Israel, 1963, Cleveland; Western Reserve University Press, 1966Google Scholar; Hashem, F., “Planning of the National Economy in Iraq,” L’Egypte Contemporaine, 6:341, 1970, 2172 (Arabic).Google Scholar

11 The point of departure in any study of this topic must be the United Nations, Progress Reports, I-IV. Also relevant are: El Ghonemy, M. Riad, “Land Reform and Economic Development in the Near East,” Land Economics, 44, 1968, 3649Google Scholar; Warriner, Doreen, Land Reform and Development in the Middle East, second edition, Oxford University Press, 1962Google Scholar; Tuma, E.H., “Land Tenure and Reform,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, forthcomingGoogle Scholar. More specific references include: Lambton, A.K.S., The Persian Land Reform, 1962–66, Oxford University Press, 1969Google Scholar; Aktan, R., “Problems of Land Reform in Turkey,” Middle East Journal, 20:3, 1966, 317334Google Scholar; Haraguchi, T., “Reforme agraire en Tunisie: quelques aspects socio-économiques de l’unité de production,” Revue tunisienne de Sci, sociales, January 1968, 89120Google Scholar; Al-Salawi, M., “Foreign Land Holdings and Land Reform in Morocco,” Al Aqlam, 2:8, 1966, 2139 (Arabic)Google Scholar; Baali, F., “Agrarian Reform in Iraq: Some Socioeconomic Aspects,” American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 28:1, 1969, 6176CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Al-Jassim, K.M., “Agrarian Reform in Relation to Economic Development in Iraq,” unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 1968Google Scholar; Shakra, A.S., “Land Reform in Syria,” unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 1966Google Scholar; Eshag, E. and Kamal, M.A., “Agrarian Reform in the United Arab Republic (Egypt),” Bulletin of the Oxford University Institute of Economics and Statistics, 30:2, 1968, 73104CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Keddle, N., “The Iranian Village Before and After Land Reform,” Journal of Contemporary History, 3:3, 1968, 6991CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Crist, R.E., “Land for the Fellahin,” American Journal of Economics and Sociology, a series of articles in volumes 17–19 (1958–1959).Google Scholar

12 The impact, or better, lack of, on rural employment is best illustrated in the Egyptian and Iranian reforms which are considered most successful; Mabro, Robert, “Industrial Growth, Agricultural Under-Employment and the Lewis Model: The Egyptian Case, 1937–1965,” Journal of Development Studies, 3:4 (July 1967), 32251—notice bibliography thereinCrossRefGoogle Scholar; Warriner, Doreen, “Employment and Wages in Rural Egypt,” American Economic Review 59:3, 1969, 298313.Google Scholar

13 On irrigation projects, in addition to the various country documents and monographs, see Doerr, Arthur H., Coling, Jerome F., and Kerr, William S. III, “Agricultural Evolution in Israel in the Two Decades since Independence,” Middle East Journal, 24:3 (1970), 319337Google Scholar; Hudson, James, “The Litani River of Lebanon: An Example of Middle Eastern Water Development,” Middle East Journal, 25:1 (1971), 114Google Scholar; Efrat, Moshe, “Syria’s Dam on the Euphrates,” New Outlook, 10:4, 1967, 3946Google Scholar; Wynn, R.F., “The Economics of Pump irrigation from the Nile in the Sudan,” Sudan Notes and Records XLIX (1968), 83103Google Scholar. On the ecological effects in Egypt and Israel see New York Times, June 7, 1970, p. 226, and July 18, 1971, p. 8 respectively; Fawaz, M., “Irrigation Projects in Lebanon,” Bulletin of Lebanese Central Office of Information, 4:57, 1968, 7190Google Scholar; Batsone, R.K., “The Utilization of the Nile Waters,” International Comparative Law Quarterly, 8:3, July 1959, 52358CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bayani, A.G., “A New Method of Irrigation in Iran,” Tahqiqat e eqtesadi 2:7–8, 1964, 1325.Google Scholar

14 For good observations on this issue see Kiray, Mubeccel and Hinderink, Jan, “Interdependencies between Agroeconomic Development and Social Change: A Comparative Study Conducted in Kukurova Region Southern Turkey,” Journal of Development Studies, 4:4 July 1968, 497528Google Scholar; Simpson, I.G., “The Developing Balance Between Manpower and Machinery, Land and Water in the Sudan,” Tropical Agriculture, Trin. 45:2, April 1968, 7989.Google Scholar

15 Simmons, John L., “Agricultural Cooperatives and Tunisian Development,” Middle East Journal, 24:4, 1970, 455465, and 25:1, 1971, 4557Google Scholar; International Labour Review, 100 (1969), 595–598; Kanovsky, E., The Economy of the Israeli Kibbutz, Harvard Middle Eastern Monographs, 13, Harvard University Press, 1955Google Scholar; Klayman, Maxwell L., The Moshav in Israel: A Case Study of Institution-Building for Agricultural Development, New York: Praeger, 1970Google Scholar; National Bank of Egypt, “Agricultural Cooperation in the U.A.R.,” Economic Bulletin, 19:4, 1966, 35161Google Scholar; Callens, M., “Developpement des structures cooperatives,” (in Tunisia) Institute des belles lettres arabes 29:116, 1966, 37196Google Scholar; Ashford, D.E., “Organization of Cooperatives and the Structure of Power in Tunisia,” Journal of Developing Areas, 1:3, 1967, 31732Google Scholar; “The Cooperative Movement in Syria,” Dirasat Arabiyyah, 1:10, 1965, 84–9 (Arabic); Khider, M., “Cooperatives and Agricultural Development in the Sudan,” Journal of Modern African Studies. 6:4, 1969, 50918.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 The system of accounting used is not clear; it is not clear, either, whether a wage was imputed for the army personnel in Morocco who acted as supervisors and instructors in these programs. Among the relevant references are: Aries, J.P., “Manpower Mobilization and Economic Growth: An Assessment of Moroccan and Tunisian Experience,” International Labour Review, 94, 1966, 121Google Scholar; a call for expanding the North African experience had been sounded earlier by Ardant, Gabriel, “A Plan for Full Employment in the Developing Countries,” International Labour Review, 88, 1963, 1551Google Scholar; Wedley, W., “Unemployment and Underemployment in Libya,” Libyan Economic and Business Review, 2:2, 1966, 5784Google Scholar; Beling, W.A., “Mobilization of Human Resources in Developing Nations: Algeria Tunisia and Egypt,” Maghreb Digest, 5:2, 1967, 526Google Scholar; Costa, E., “Manpower Mobilization for Economic Development in Tunisia,” International Labour Review, 93:1, 1966, 518.Google Scholar

17 Najjar, Halim, “Evolution of Agricultural Guidance [irshad] Services in the Near East,” Al Abhath, 1966, 107123 (Arabic)Google Scholar; Burki, Shahid Javed, “West Pakistan’s Rural Works Program: A Study in Politicai Administrative Response,” Middle East Journal, 23:3, 1969, 32142Google Scholar; Blandy, R. and Nashab, M., “The Education Corps in Iran: A Survey of its Social and Economic Aspects,” International labour Review, 93:5, 2519Google Scholar; Gadalla, S.M., Land Reform in Relation to Social Development: Egypt, Missouri University Studies 39, 1962Google Scholar; Peppelenbosch, P., “Reflections on Community Development in Arab Countries,” International Review of Community Development, 17–18, 1967, 27186.Google Scholar

18 Taghi T. Kermani, op. cit., 44–45.

19 For a discussion of these points, FAO, Mediterranean Development Project, Rome, 1959, especially chapters II, III.

20 A highly valuable source, at least as a directional guide, is the study by Clawson, M., et al., op. cit.—chapters 15–17 deal specifically with these points; other relevant references include Issawi, Charles, “Prospects for Economic Development in the Middle East,” Academy of Political Science, Proceedings, 24, 1952, 46782Google Scholar; Asfour, Edmond Y., “Long Term Projections of Supply and Demand for Agricultural Products,” [Saudi Arabia] American University of Beirut, Economic Research Institute, 1965Google Scholar; Bruno, M., Economic Development Problems of Israel, 1970–1980, Rand Corporation, 1970Google Scholar; Rosenfield, H., “Change, Barriers to Change, and Contradictions in the Arab Village Family,” American Anthropologist 70:4, 1968, 73252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 One might suspect that either such studies are luxuries which belong to the affluent economies, or that they are kept from publication for other than scholarly reasons. Some Ph.D. theses may be found which deal with technical agricultural problems, but not many deal with the economics of development in agriculture; among the more relevant dissertations are: Shamsedin, E.M., “The Economic Impact of Development: A Case Study of Litani River and Other Projects in Lebanon,” Florida, 1961Google Scholar; Dajani, N.I., “Economic Appraisal of the Yarmuk Jordan Valley Project,” Wisconsin, 1957Google Scholar; Al-Bassam, H. K., “An Evaluation of the Rural Development Programs in Iraq,” Cornell, 1959Google Scholar; Badr, M.I., “Developing Statistical Methods and Systems of the Agricultural Sector in Egypt as Part of Planning for General Economic Development,” Wisconsin, 1960Google Scholar; Osman, A.A., “Planning Agricultural Policies and Implementataion in the Republic of the Sudan,” Michigan State, 1968Google Scholar. For other dissertation references see Selim, G.D., American Doctoral Dissertations on the Arab World, 1883–1968, Library of Congress, 1970.Google Scholar

22 Few exceptions will be found in the national quarterlies of the various countries; among the available publications, the following may be noted in addition to the bibliography already cited: Bottomley, Anthony, “Rent Determination with the Common Ownership of Land in Underdeveloped Countries,” Middle East Economic Papers, 1967, pp. 111Google Scholar, is a good attempt at using economic theory in the study of agricultural productivity under various tenure arrangements; Kristjanson, B.H., “The Agrarian-Based Development of Iran,” Land Economics, 36:1, 1960, 113CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Khlat, P., “Whither Land Tenure in the Arab World,” Middle East Economic Papers, 1955, 4761Google Scholar; Sabrut, Abdel-Aziz, “Evaluation of the First Five Year Plan in U.A.R.,” L’Egypte Contemporaine, 328, April 1967, 6586 (Arabic)Google Scholar; Omar, H., “The Evolution of the National Economy in the Period of Socialist Transformation,” L’Egypte Contemporaine 326, October 1966, 5127 (Arabic)Google Scholar; Abdullah, Kh., “Labour Productivity in Agriculture,” ibid., 127140 (Arabic)Google Scholar; Weitz, Raanan, Agriculture and Rural Development in Israel: Projection and Planning, National and University Institute of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 68, Rehovot: 1963Google Scholar; Hansen, B., “Marginal Productivity Wage Theory and Subsistence Wage Theory in Egyptian Agriculture,” Journal of Development Studies, 2:4, 1966, 367407.Google Scholar