Agricultural policy

Agricultural policy describes a set of laws relating to domestic agriculture and imports of foreign agricultural products. Governments usually implement agricultural policies with the goal of achieving a specific outcome in the domestic agricultural product markets. In relation to the foregoing, Akarowhe (2017) propounded that agricultural policies are pathways of improving the activities involve in cropping, livestock, forestry, processing and marketing of agricultural product. Agricultural policies are predetermined goals, objectives and pathway set by an individual or government for the purpose of achieving a specified outcome, for the benefit of the individual(s), society and the nations’ economy at large. Agricultural policies take into consideration the primary, secondary and tertiary processes in agricultural production. Outcomes can involve, for example, a guaranteed supply level, price stability, product quality, product selection, land use or employment. An example of the breadth and types of agriculture policy concerns can be found in the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics article 'Agricultural Economies of Australia and New Zealand' which says that the major challenges and issues faced by their industrial agriculture industry are: Agriculture remains the largest single contributor to the livelihoods of the 75% of the world's poor who live in rural areas. Encouraging agricultural growth is therefore an important aspect of agricultural policy in the developing world. In addition, a recent Natural Resource Perspective paper by the Overseas Development Institute found that good infrastructure, education and effective information services in rural areas were necessary to improve the chances of making agriculture work for the poor.