Toward an Appropriate Theoretical Framework for Agricultural Development Planning and Policy

In order to be elective, development planning and policy need to be in- formed by relevant theory. This paper at first argues that, in many important respects, the current body of agricultural development theory inadequately represents the Caribbean situation. In so far as this hypothesis is correct, it implicitly provides a partial explanation for the failure to get agriculture moving in spite of substantial government intervention and assistance in most territories of the region. It also sets the stage for the second objective of the paper: to outline some of the steps required for developing an appropriate theoretical framework and to place this selection of papers in the perspective of these considerations.