Rural Economy as Key Driver for Sustainable Growth

Question:

How Important is the Rural Economy to the Growth agenda and what role does Planning have in facilitating Rural Development?

Rural economy still the biggest driving force behind the success and growth of any economy, despite industries have helped the countries around the world to reach the stage they are right now. A shift in the planning dynamics has been happened and a renewed focus on the development of the rural economy has been initiated. A sustainable rural development planning is crucial that will be forming the necessary foundations of a strong and independent nation. If the most fundamental of the economic structure is not firm enough, the entire structure itself cannot withstand the pressure of the global economy and will eventually succumb to the growing issues. The focus must be lifted from the traditional urban-rural duality and have to look beyond that to understand how are the two aspects dependent upon each other to create a sustainable growth plan for the both.

This paper looks into the importance of rural economy and tries to understand why is it so important to create a strong rural economy development so that the entire national economy is helped and a long-term sustainable model can be furnished. Different policies are dabbled with, to give the proper picture of the significance of the rural economy as a key driver for growth.

Definition of rural area

The term “rural area” refers to the pastures of land that are not within the bounds of densely populated urban lands inside the perimeters of a city or town. Rural areas are not included in the urban definition and are traditionally large, open areas with sparsely populate places and only a few houses and normally are more dependent upon agriculture than any heavy industry. Most people who live in rural areas are in some way connected to farming and the agriculture industry (Chambers, 2014). Also, wildlife is more frequently found in the rural areas. despite the majority of the world population still living in the rural lands, the case is rapidly changing due to rapid urbanization across the planet. It is estimated that the urban population of the world will increase almost 2 billion by 2050.

Another popular method of defining rural areas is by first gathering the criteria for defining what is urban and then identifying the rural areas simply by excluding the areas that do not fall under the category of urban lands. Unlike urban areas, the people who live in rural places have their homes and businesses far away from each other, whereas in urban areas the two are situated more closely.

Policies and Initiatives for Inclusive Rural Development

Explanation for growth agenda

It is vital to plan for growth and sustainable development in the rural areas, because of the fact that it is the foundation of the economy as a whole. Over the last three decades, the focus of rural planning has shifted from a simplistic agriculture boosting way to incorporating wider areas of inclusive rural development that are take into consideration more aspects of rural life and also is aimed to make a plan which is much more sustainable (Contò et al., 2015). These new forms of planning encompass every aspect of the human development, like social, political and economic. Even until the later years of the 1970s, rural development was perceived to be synonymous with only increased productivity in the agricultural yield. However, the dimensions and the notions changed, when, in the 1980s, the World Bank defined rural development as a strategy that is designed to enhance the condition of the rural people and considered every possible meaning of the word and not only the agricultural part. New policies and plans began to emerge with this changed perception and rural planning eventually became a source of much academic and political debate, pertaining to the feasibility of the different ideas and theories (Holden, Linnerud & Banister, 2017).

Rural economy has been traditionally associated with agriculture and farming. With the new definition on rural development, new views were also developed on the same. Several factors were responsible for the shift of paradigm. There were growing concerns about the stark disparities in wealth and gross income inequalities over the last few decades and it was noticed that the poverty mostly spread in a more grievous manner in the rural areas, which had to be addressed immediately (Welford, 2013). Despite the fact that green revolution had dramatically changed the agricultural scenario in many of the developing countries and the annual yield of crops in many regions were flourish, giving numbers that had never been recorded before, the rural areas were still riddled with the malicious issues that entailed acute poverty and a lack of definitive planning. One major reason for this is the fact that green revolution mostly benefited the farmers who were not very poor and were mostly evident in the farm lands that were under irrigation. Furthermore, economists during this time had started to challenge the orthodox view on development, which ultimately resulted in the rejection of the GDP as the definite and absolute measure of development. The concept of inclusive rural growth is different from the traditional view of it in the major sense that growth, income or output indicators are not enough or sufficient for inclusive development, and it requires a wider range of parameters encompassing every aspect of human life and results in a collective growth, rather than only thinking about reducing the financial pressure (Griggs et al., 2013).

Challenges in Rural Planning and Development

Life quality in rural areas

In any area, in order to retain the inhabitants, it must be ensured that the life quality, that is offered by the authorities and the city planners, is good enough so that people want to keep living in the same place. Even though the quality of life has increased significantly than what it used to be before, it is still deplorable when is compared against life quality in the urban localities. Provided, that there are many good sides of a rural life, but the disadvantages that are faced by the population far outweighs the advantages offered in rural landscapes (Wheeler & Beatley, 2014). Quality of life is a multifaceted area which needs careful introspection so that an overall enhancement can be ensured. People from the rural areas, particularly the younger generation, leave those places for more urban locales because of different aspects like inadequate health service benefits, insufficient opportunities to avail educational services, lesser amount of jobs, an overall less cognitive and exciting social life. While planning for the development of the rural areas, it must be remembered that the rural areas all have their own distinct and diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, which are vital to the identity of the nations of which they are a part of. These cultures must be promoted so that an increased attention is given to them and the life of the people living in the rural areas can be made to be better (Welford, 2013).

In the developed countries, the picture of the rural life is not much different than the developing nations. However, a lesser disparity in the income levels remain, which can only be eradicated with better economic development of a country. The developing nations experience a much greater ordeal when it comes to plan an integrated rural development scheme (Imran, Alam & Beaumont, 2014). Countries like India, which have diverse cultures and remote areas in virtually every part of the country, with absolutely contrasting cultural backgrounds, it is incredibly tough to make a plan that would be beneficial for all, as a uniform law or regulation is almost impossible to make in cases like these.

Social harmony

When it comes to solely looking into the social parity of the rural and urban localities, the contrast can often become too hard to digest and this can be one of the major drivers for a complete inclusive rural development plan. Despite being something like the foundation stone for the society or civilization in general, rural areas and farm lands often have to face the cold caress of poverty and the population there have no other choice but to migrate to urban areas where a better chance of a steady job can be availed and that means less chances of poverty and starvation, which is, still, a dire problem for the rural populace (Briassoulis, 2017). In terms of social harmony rural localities can be more integrated than the urban areas. the society is more integrated and often witnesses more harmony and peace than the urban counterpart.

Cultural and Ethnic Diversity in Rural Areas

Regional economy

Regional economy of the urban society is still in poorer condition than urban areas. in most cases, this results from the inexistence of any heavy industries in the rural places. The overall economic development has been the main driver for rural planning for decades and is still given the most importance.

A pivotal change has happened in the recent times about the planning process. Considering that a higher number of people are now part of the urban populace than ever before, this had to be done so that the existing plans are not rendered obsolete and actually do benefit all the members of the society and incorporates the needs for every section of the population. The UN-habitat has reported that almost 54% of the world population is now urbanized and the number would only be growing in the coming years and hence published International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning (IG-UTP) to facilitate in the planning process (Steurer & Hametner, 2013). These guidelines act as a tool “to promote sound urban and territorial planning around the world, based on universally agreed principles.” These guidelines have been laid down with keeping in mind that the world rural population has almost doubled since 1950 and is now over three billion.

In strictly traditional terms, planning has always been more concerned with urban areas, but has not totally ignored the rural-urban linkages, either. The interactions between the people, economic activity and environmental aspects of the two different areas and their interdependency has always been one of major factors that have shaped any form of development planning in the world. The emphasis that is currently given to urban development planning is easily understandable and has its roots in history (Wheeler & Beatley, 2014). Most of the planning or the schools of planning have been rotating around one key event in history that had changed the communities and the societies across the world forever: the industrialization. This obviously changed the previously planning processes simply because the whole dynamics and the power structure of the society had changed, and thus was established the current ideas behind development planning (Ayre & Callway, 2013). Most of the problems that came with industrialization were concentrated around the cities, which made it a necessity to have science-based specific plans that were mostly addressing the issues of the cities and not the rural areas. as urbanization increased, the economic, social and environmental conditions of the rural areas declined, which were also being given attention by these planning initiatives.

Social Parity in Rural and Urban Localities

Planning schemes for the rural areas are done keeping in mind many areas that are supposed to usher in sustainable development for these localities and not simply an increased productivity in agriculture. Without overall growth, the economy of the rural areas cannot be boosted and this can be achieved through promoting the prices of the agricultural crops and without invading rural lands with industrialization. There are several methods which can be used to ensure that the rural lands are being given the proper attention that they require (Chambers, 2014). One of the most widely used tool for this through optimizing the use of the land resources and using the available lands with efficiency. There are many factors that facilitate in the development of the rural economy, over which there kare debates among the economists, who give different sets of attributes that are most important to boost the economic growth in rural areas. there cannot be a generalised bundle which can be all encompassing and be perfectly concluded on the definitive factors.

Investment: Planning schemes that are set to improve the land use in rural areas often result in heavy amounts of investments from organisations or other industries. These investements mean that the rural areas ae flooded with money that can help to bring more lands under irrigation and have the potential to bring about growth levels that would be inclusive in nature. Creation of infrastructure is often the best foundation stone for a sustainable economic growth.

Deposit growth: The rural economy can be further boosted by enhanced employment in the rural areas, who can be hired to help with the infrastructural development of the lands or in irrigation expansions. Widespread employment would be resulting in more income possibilities for more people, ultimately generating higher purchasing power for more people and creating demand for products (Clark et al., 2016). This would be a sure propeller for sustainable development in the rural areas.

Population growth: If the growth conditions of the rural areas can be projected to become even stronger in the coming years and the development prospects are set to higher, population of the rural areas will increase (Folke & Kautsky, 2014). A rural-urban migration is not uncalled for and may ultimately help the rural lands to have a demand for commodities entailing a market growth.

Balanced development

To create a sustainable development plan for the rural areas, there are many suggested models which are used. The microsphere model is one such method, which aims to promote a user-producer discovery process and enabling a diverse range of enterprises to identify the value-adding activities (Contò et al., 2015). This can be further enhancing to the market spontaneity, which only be resulting in additions to the positive effects of the already functioning market.

Rural-Urban development balance

Regional Economy and Heavy Industries in Rural Areas

A balanced rural-urban development planning is essential to promote overall growth of a country. In 2015, the UN had given ten cases which look into the balanced development from different perspectives, which include, spatial flow of the commodities and a div ersification of the expertise among the rural and urban places. The migration flow between the two places should be much more flexible and food security should be ensured to everyone (Stone & Desai, 2015). Rural urbanization is one important way which can help to develop the infrastructure of the rural areas and promote economic sustainability.

Reflector

Government idea: The government is the foremost entity that plans for sustainable development and a more integrated and inclusive rural economic growth (Pearce, Barbier & Markandya, 2013). Most of the policies and schemes that are implemented with a focus on the rural development are formulated by the government through the legislative structure.

Public interest: Some collaborative projects are often undertaken by the government, which includes participation of the people or at times is solely initiated by public companies with objectives to enhance the infrastructure of rural areas.

Creating sustainable towns with vibrant rural areas is a challenge for any planning committee and has to be done with the utmost care. Variabilities in the differences in the environment, geographical features, economic and social conditions of the different rural and urban areas cause the plans to differ in some basic aspects but all have the common goal of promoting sustainable development (Barcus, 2014). The PLUREL project is an excellent case study of different EU nations and China, that offer some valuable insights about rural urban development planning and also about how may sustainable growth be achieved. Territorial cohesion, developing green compact cities, preserving blue and green infrastructure, promoting agricultural land and enhanced local production are only some of the most popular ones.

Smart growth idea

The Dumfries and Galloway rural project is one of the best examples of how to plan for rural development in a smart way. This area had many characteristics that are defining for rural lands, with declined rate of wages and, poverty and high population of aged people. Almost 85% of the firms in this place were classified as micro-businesses. The area’s regional economic strategy is in alignment with the Europe2020 Strategy, which is focused to promote sustainable, smart and inclusive growth.

Cooperative urban-rural development planning

The Chengdu Model that was implemented for the development of the Chengdu district of China have been a glorious example of how can the rural and the urban localities collaborate to create development plans that benefit both the regions. It has been China’s most productive province for over two thousand years. A dual economy theory was employed by the authorities to eradicate the persisting poverty that has been a malice to the province for decades. The case in China is not dissimilar to the rest of the world: stark economic contrast in the rural and urban area. The Chengdu Coordinated Urban-Rural Development Commission is charged with implementing multifaceted development plans for both the rural and semi-urban areas (Chen & Scott, 2016).

The Shift in Planning Dynamics and Urbanization

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is apparently clear that sustainable rural development is the only way which can make sure that an integrated and strong economy can be achieved and planning for this has to be done with absolute careful analyses, which is aimed to eradicate poverty from the rural areas in an all-encompassing manner: not just increased productivity of agricultural crops, but a development in the overall life and a better life quality is the only way that would boost the entire economy.

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