This volume, derived from a workshop on ‘Macroeconomic policies and rural development’ held at the ILO in December 1989, assesses the changing role of agriculture in economic development against the background of world economic crisis and the response to it through structural adjustment programmes. Following an introductory chapter which sets the scene, the four studies in the first part of the book deal with the effects of world economic crisis on agrarian development at the global level, as well as in the three major developing regions of the world: Africa, Asia and Latin America. The second part consists of two studies which are concerned with the longer-term issues in relation to agricultural change and economic development. This volume will help to generate fresh perspectives on the role of agriculture in economic development during the crucial decade of the 1990s.