Rural industrialization in israel: A summary of experiences

In many countries, both developed and less developed, the share of agriculture in employment opportunities for the rural labour force has been steadily decreasing owing to the growing inability of agriculture to meet the demand for employment in rural areas. The high level of demand may result from high rates of natural population growth in rural areas, and in some cases - mainly in developed countries - from a new trend of population migration from big cities to rural areas and small towns. It may also be intensified by a national policy of population dispersion designed to ease the congestion in big cities, solve problems of national security etc. On the other hand, the capacity of agriculture to provide· employment is curbed by an increase in the level of agricultural technology and the slow growth of the market for agricultural products. In many cases, including Israel, this tendency is further enhanced by limited resources of land and water. In other cases it is often intensified by deficiencies such as low levels of income and insufficient job diversity to satisfy the needs of the younger and better-educated labour force. Rural industrialization has been put forward as a solution for some of the above problems.