A—7

3. Effective steps should therefore be taken to provide new opportunities of productive employment in manufacturing and service industries which will absorb excess agricultural population. 11. Expansion of Agricultural Production 4. Notwithstanding the primary importance of promoting intensive industrial development, agriculture will for a long time to come remain the chief source of income for the majority of the population of the Asian countries. 5. The expansion of agricultural as well as industrial production must therefore be regarded as a primary objective of the economic policy of the Asian countries. 6. With a view to expanding agricultural production, measures should be taken—(a) To bring into cultivation arable land hitherto unutilized ; (b) To increase yields per unit of land by the control of insects and diseases, the use of more and better manures and fertilizers, the improvement of seeds and the adoption of improved methods of cultivation ; (c) To increase agricultural output per worker by the improvement of agricultural implements and, wherever economically feasible, by the introduction of machinery ; (d) To establish agricultural implement stations operated, where necessary, by Governments for the purpose of lending such implements to agriculturists in need of them; (e) To improve the organization of farm enterprises by the consolidation of fragmentary holdings and the development of co-operative farms ; (/) To raise the productivity of animal husbandry and fisheries; (g) To control by the enforcement of adequate laws or regulations the ownership and use of land to ensure that it is used in the best interest of the community. 7. Provision should be made for large-scale public investment in water and soil conservation schemes and irrigation and drainage works. 111. Fair Distribution of Agricultural Income 8. A fair distribution of agricultural income is of primary importance for the socia and economic well-being of the agrarian population. 9. With a view to securing a fair distribution of agricultural income measures should be taken —- (a) To prohibit usury and establish rural credit institutions to facilitate the provision to agriculturists of loans at low rates of interest; (b) To reduce to a minimum the tax burden of low-income agriculturists ; (c) To fix agricultural rents at a reasonable level, afford greater security of land tenure, and, where appropriate, promote a more equitable distribution of land ownership ; (d) To improve the organization of agricultural marketing and, more particularly, to encourage the development of co-operative marketing. IV. Fair Terms of Exchange for Export of Primary Products 10. The economies of many Asian countries are built wholly or to a large extent from the export of primary products the prices of which are subject to wide fluctuations consequent upon cyclical and long-term changes in the world conditions of demand and supply, and the maintenance of fair terms of exchange for such products is therefore of particular importance for the advance of the social standards and well-being of the peoples concerned.

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