Introduction

For the greater part of humanity, primarily in developing countries, agriculture remains at the core of their existence: it provides sustenance, supports people’s livelihoods and defines their traditions. Moreover, the bounty of agricultural production in many societies the world over, and throughout the ages, has created surplus value that has underpinned their material basis. This applies equally to urban civilizations founded in the past, the triangular trade of the colonial period which aided the industrialization of Europe and North America (Thomas, 1997), the more recent transformation of Taiwan Province of China from a tropical agricultural island to an electronics superpower (Lee, 1971; Wu, 1984), and the significant agriculture-based dynamism and diversification of Brazil’s economy today (Brainard and Martinez- Diaz, 2009).

Sustainable Development Goals:

Decent Work and Economic Growth