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Titre Technical Change in Wartime in South Vietnam (1967-1972)
Auteur Arthur Combs
Mir@bel Revue Etudes rurales
Numéro no 151-152, 1999 Autres temps, autres lieux
Page 225-253
Résumé anglais Casual observers of what the Vietnamese call the "American War" are generally surprised to learn that significant rural economic growth took place in the late 1960s and early 1970s. South Vietnam's experience with "Green Revolution" technology, however, demonstrated that economic development is possible even in conditions of acute political instability and low intensity conflict. Highly divisible products for which local demand exists can diffuse into the countryside, improve farm families' lives, and lift a rural economy. Perhaps the most important finding in this essay is that the new technology diffused well beyond the scope of the government program that introduced it, and that both seeds and chemicals crossed military and political frontiers. This has implications for development planning as well as for theory. It supports the old idea that the market at times can diffuse technology more efficiently than a government or NGO development program. And it confirms that peasant farm families in much of South Vietnam grasped opportunities to maximize their incomes within levels of risk they deemed acceptable. Scholars and policy makers may argue the finer points of the Green Revolution, but a large portion of South Vietnam's farm families expressed their support for the technology by taking on increased risk and investing in new inputs during a short, tumultuous period.
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