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How important is agricultural growth to poverty reduction? This article first sets out the theoretical reasons for expecting agricultural growth to reduce poverty. Several plausible and strong arguments apply -including the creation of jobs on the land, linkages from farming to the rest of the rural economy, and a decline in the real cost of food for the whole economy -but the degree of impact is in all cases qualified by particular circumstances. Hence, the article deploys a cross-country estimation of the links between agricultural yield per unit area and measures of poverty. This produces strong confirmation of the hypothesised linkages. It is unlikely that there are many other development interventions capable of reducing the numbers in poverty so effectively.How important is agricultural growth to alleviating poverty in a world in which farming's share of total output is in decline?We can assess the impact of agricultural growth on poverty in general and rural poverty in particular, in two ways. One draws on theory, building plausible arguments about how changes in agricultural production may affect the numbers of poor and the depth of their poverty. The other takes an empirical approach, by observing directly changes in agricultural productivity and poverty, and then estimating the degree to which they are related. This article deploys both approaches.

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Despite on-going change, rural areas remain characterised by relative abundance of natural capital, and by distance and the relatively high cost of movement. They are also home to most of the world's poor. Compared with urban areas which enjoy proximity to customers and producers, rural areas may have comparative advantage only in primary activities based on immobile natural resources and closely related activities. There are differences, however, between 'peri-urban', 'middle countryside' and 'remote' areas. In some areas, economic growth, urban expansion, and improved transport and communications create new urban-oriented opportunities for rural services and labour. Remote areas will continue to present special difficulties, however; and, in general, the potential for nonagricultural diversification is less than is sometimes argued.

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