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Framework Agricutural Technology
Framework Agricutural Technology
There are three theories related to why certain changes and improvements in agriculture is
adopted: agricultural change theory, Mellor’s theory and Schultz theory. In this study, only the
The Schultz Theory is a theory by Theodore Schultz. This theory is about the traditional
agriculture. By the latter term is meant ‘a kind of farming based wholly on the kinds of factors of
production that have been used by farmers for generations’. According to this theory, this kind of
agriculture often, but not always, displays depressing results in that the income generated by it are
very low. The problem that Schultz sets out to solve is how traditional agriculture can be
This problem Schultz regards as an investment problem. Its solution, however, does not lie
simply in the injection of capital into the agricultural sector, but what forms agricultural
investments should take must be determined. Schultz advances the thesis that the traditional
agricultural sector cannot grow with the aid of the traditional production factors only, except at a
very high cost. New, totally different production forces are necessary. Schultz theory is thus a
theory of modernization. He suggested that modern factors have to be adopted, but this will not
take place unless farmers have an incentive to do so. It is the farmers, and their abilities that form
To come grip with this overriding problem, Schultz poses three traditional questions which
1. Can low income agricultural communities increase their output by a more efficient
Schultz Theory sets out to solve how traditional agriculture can be turned to obtain a highly
productive type of farming. Moreover, this theory presents and covers out agriculture’s
modernization. This theory focuses on how an agricultural sector can improve themselves in
terms of income generation, systematic crop production and capital rotation by incorporating
Schultz theory also describes the traditional farming as “efficient but poor”, which means
that agriculture-related officials must try maximizing everything within economic means.
Schultz pointed that people working in traditional agriculture are often very poor rejecting
explanations in terms of cultural traits, like thrift, industriousness and aspirations and that the