Rural development from a territorial perspective : case studies in Asia and Latin America

This paper reviews the contribution of agriculture and rural development to poverty reduction by examining the transformation of five territories in four countries of Asia (Malaysia and People's Republic of China) and Latin America (Brazil and Peru) that have experienced substantial reductions in poverty. While the four countries fall into three distinct groupings based on national statistics on the importance of agriculture and the growth of Gross Domestic Product, the five territories included in the study were among the poorest in their respective countries. At the same time, all five have experienced great reductions in poverty during the last two decades - a transformation that they achieved by taking substantially different paths that implied different roles of agriculture.