three reasons lie behind this first more is known about the promotion of agricultural growth than the promotion of alternative nonagricultural activities valdes and foster second the responsibility for rural development has often fallen to government departments responsible for agriculture farming and related activities rojascaldelas et al third in most developing countries the vast majority of the rural population is engaged in agriculture and improving farm incomes is often seen as an obvious first step it is not that approaches based on single sectors in isolation are necessarily ineffective or undesirable but simply that an approach to development with too narrow a focus is unlikely to recognise the full complexity externalities and opportunities that affect the development potential of a given region