Abstract: | Gain, profit, call it what you will, constitutes a powerful incentive for change throughout many, if not most, parts of the under-developed world. The larger the profit is and the longer it can be sustained, the more likely is a hitherto poor agricultural beneficiary (e.g. the coffee growers of East Africa, the cacao farmers of West Africa) to work his way out of the vicious circle of poverty, ignorance, malnutrition and consequent low production. This is the background against which the analysis of the determinants of net rural product and factor rprices is developed. From the analysis arise the criteria for innovation policy in underdeveloped aural areas. Notes, figure. |