The Agrarian Roots of Industrial Growth: Rural Development in South‐East Asia and sub‐Saharan Africa

There is an influential view that South‐East Asia's economic success is based on export‐oriented industrialisation, and that African states should above all imitate this aspect of Asian development strategy. This article, however, uses evidence from Indonesia, Nigeria, Malaysia and Kenya to argue: (i) that the historical roots of South‐East Asian economic success actually lie in pro‐poor agricultural and rural development; (ii) that even when it has been pro‐rural, as in the case of Kenya, African development strategy has not been pro‐poor; and (iii) that pro‐poor agricultural development, not export‐oriented industrialisation, should be the first priority of African states seeking to achieve sustained growth and poverty reduction.