Structural Transformation, Agriculture, Climate, and the Environment

Abstract

This paper reviews the feedbacks between structural transformation and agriculture, on the one hand, and climate and the natural environment, on the other. The longstanding, dominant economic development narrative largely ignores nature's influence on factor productivity and stocks, even as it increasingly illustrates how agricultural technological change and economic growth affect nature. We articulate some of the missing linkages and pose a range of policy research questions worth exploration concerning structural transformation and the complex feedback among agriculture, nature, and economic growth processes, especially in the lowincome agrarian nations of the Global South.

The Impact of Climate Change on Work: Lessons for Developing Countries

“…Evidence for Indonesia indicates that agricultural households affected by unanticipated low rainfall are more likely to have a household member migrate to a nearby area (Kleemans and Magruder, 2018). In China, a one-standard-deviation decline in rainfall, 43 Barrett et al (2023) provide a conceptual review of structural transformation and climate. 44 Climate migration research tends to focus on permanent migration; seasonal or circular migration, or commuting time receive much less attention.…”

How Will Global Agriculture and Food Security Respond to Future Socioeconomic Shocks?

“…These challenges gain complexity as they require increasing agricultural output in an environmentally sustainable way, from local to global scales (Hertel & Baldos, 2016;Giller et al, 2021;OECD, 2021;Kerr et al, 2022;McKinsey & Company, 2022;FAO, 2023d;World Bank, 2023). Such transformations of food systems are further pressured by a context increasingly jeopardized by the new realities imposed by climate change (Zilli et al, 2020;Fróna et al, 2021;Jägermeyr et al, 2021;Masson-Delmotte et al, 2021;Barrett et al, 2023;Nugroho et al, 2023).…”