in general spending on public goods such as infrastructure and agricultural research can facilitate both developments whereas direct subsidies to farm activities notwithstanding potential benefits that are discussed later run the risk of impeding adjustment they have done this both explicitly for example via export taxes and regulated food prices and implicitly by investing relatively less in rural areas since the mid s there has been a reduction in this tendency but it still prevails anderson et al as incomes rise and as agriculture s share of employment decreases countries find they can afford more easily to provide support to their agricultural sectors and the opposite tendency is observed