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Explain the national policy of our country

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Answered by AbhinavAtreus
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2.4 National policy objectives

2.4.1 The broad groupings of government policy objectives
2.4.2 Ranking policy objectives

A key step in identifying the most important policy issues on which to concentrate is to identify the government's own policy objectives and to gain some idea of the relative importance of each of these objectives. While they are sometimes difficult to prioritise, a rough ranking is both possible and essential if overall policy is to be effective and not deflected by internal or external interest groups.

Government objectives for the livestock subsector are determined partly by an overall political philosophy and partly through an assessment of the direction and speed at which change in the current functions of the subsector is desired.

2.4.1 The broad groupings of government policy objectives

The terms in which governments state their objectives vary in each country. However, most objectives can be classified as falling into one of five broad groups:

· independence objectives
· economic efficiency objectives
· resource conservation objectives
· stability objectives
· equity objectives.

Independence objectives are concerned with obtaining and preserving a satisfactory degree of political and economic autonomy. Independence implies that a country neither depends on foreign aid to meet the basic needs of its population nor is susceptible to external political interference (the former is often linked to the latter). Meeting the independence objective requires a high degree of self-reliance, in the sense that a country will wish either to be entirely self-sufficient in basic food commodities or to dispose of sufficient foreign exchange to meet part of its demand through imports. "Self-sufficiency" in all basic foodstuffs, meaning that the country produces domestically enough to meet its entire demand, is sometimes advocated. But self-sufficiency in this sense can involve very high costs if the country does not have the natural or other resources to produce a particular food commodity at low cost. It may be better to produce some other (e.g. non-food) commodity for which it does have the appropriate resources and to sell that to raise the foreign exchange to buy the food commodity. This point is dealt with in more detail in module 4.

Economic efficiency objectives(hereafter just "efficiency") are concerned with increasing the level of real national income and its growth rate over time. Economic efficiency is a very complex concept and only some aspects of it will be discussed in this manual. Efficiency implies that a country use existing, and generate new, technology to minimise costs per unit of output, and seek a combination of outputs consistent with its comparative advantage in the international market. Efficiency will usually be closely related to the appropriateness of price signals conveyed through the market mechanism. Government intervention often distorts these signals, resulting in a mix-allocation of resources within the economy. However, the market mechanism alone will not necessarily lead to optimum long-term development. Carefully thought out government interventions are often needed to ensure that the conditions for long-term efficiency are fulfilled.

Resource conservation objectives are concerned with preserving the natural resource base in order to ensure long-term efficiency and independence. These objectives are of particular importance to African livestock policy makers because of serious environmental problems, such as overgrazing, often attributed to livestock.

Stability objectives are concerned with avoiding abrupt and large changes in incomes, in the price and availability of domestically produced basic commodities and inputs, and in the consequent need for foreign exchange to buy essential imports. Since stability is rarely secured without cost, absolute stability of prices and quantities should not be the aim. Indeed, absolute price stability when production is inherently unstable can worsen both supply problems and farmer viability. Nor should food security be confused with self-sufficiency in the production of all food types. Agricultural markets, in particular, are inherently unstable. As a result, agricultural policy should be directed towards achieving an adequate degree of stability.

Equity objectives are concerned with the fair distribution of income and wealth within society. Important equity considerations in relation to agriculture and livestock include the distribution of income and assets among different types of farms within and among regions, and the allocation of land use rights between producers. The equity objective also concerns the relative well-being of producers and consumers, the distribution of purchasing power between different groups of consumers and the availability of employment opportunities.
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