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although significant variances exist. For example, in some African countries,
such as Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda, the contribution of agriculture to
GDP is 58%, 57% and 50% respectively, whilst in other, particularly South
American, countries, the contribution is much lower (UNDP, 1998: 182-183).
Frequently, productivity is barely above subsistence levels and a lack of tech-
nology and investment finance limit opportunities for increasing output.
Therefore, although the export of primary agricultural products represents
the principal source of foreign exchange earnings for many developing coun-
tries, typically accounting for between 60% and 70% of the foreign currency
earnings of the developing world, their share of total world trade continues
to decline (Todaro, 2000: 60).
Low levels of living - low incomes and low levels of health and
education/literacy
In many less developed countries, a variety of factors contribute to
what may be described generally as a low level of living. Principal amongst
these is the low level of income, most commonly measured as per capita
GDP or GNI (Gross National Income) as a guide to the relative economic
well-being of people in different countries. Within the less developed world
there are significant variances; thus, for example, the World Bank catego-
rises the developmental status of countries according to different levels of
GNI (Table 1.5).
However, two points must immediately be made. First, quantitative
measures of wealth (or poverty) do not necessarily reflect culturally defined,
non-economic interpretations in some countries:
There may be as many poor and as many perceptions of poverty as there
are human beings. The fantastic variety of cases entitling a person to be
called poor in different cultures and languages is such that, all in all,
everything and everyone under the sun could be labelled as poor, in one
way or another . . . For long, and in many cultures of the world, poor was
not always the opposite of rich. Other considerations, such as falling
from one's station in life, being deprived of one's instruments of labour,
the loss of one's status or the marks of one's profession...defined the poor.
(Rahnema, 1992: 158)
Second, level of income does not necessarily indicate level of development.
For example, although in Table 1.5 only 36 countries are categorised as 'low
income', the UN lists 48 countries as 'least developed', based on meeting (or
suffering) all of the following criteria (UN, 2011, 2013):
(1)
Low per capita income
(GNI under $992 for inclusion, above $ 1,190 for
graduation in 2013)
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