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Agricultural economics is sometimes criticised for being microcentred. We should not apologise; colleagues who study industrial organisation or many aspects of public sector economics are neither more nor less guilty. The fact remains, however, that agriculture, like all sectors, operates within a macro-economic framework and there is a growing spate of literature focusing on that broader perspective. It runs in two directions: the farming consequences of macro-economic developments where much of the attention focuses on exchange rates and interest rates, and the effects of agricultural policies on the economy at large. The objective here is to review the situation. Topical issues considered range from the value of the dollar and the operation of the European exchange-rate, mechanism, to controversies surrounding the recent GATT negotiations.

Following a study tour of China a brief account is presented of recent changes in agricultural policy with some short comments on living conditions. The account concentrates on the prominence now given to agriculture within the planning process and the recent raising of its status relative to other sectors. This is associated with the change to the household responsibility system allied to upward adjustment in agricultural producer prices and some adjustment in input costs.

Since the ending of World War II increasing attention has been paid in Britain to the need for the formulation of a coherent land use planning strategy. Public control over land use has strengthened and interest in the conceptual and practical problems involved has grown to a sufficient extent to have generated a significant body of literature. This article begins with a short account of the land use planning process, considers the state of land use statistics and outlines the results of work by a number of writers on projections of land requirements in various uses notably for agriculture, forestry and urban expansion. Against this background attention then focuses on the use of cost-benefit analysis as a means of resolving conflicts in land allocation, particularly those which centre on agricultural use as against urban expansion, and agriculture versus forestry development. A further section considers the application of cost-benefit methods in research on recreational uses of land. The paper is designed primarily as a critical survey of the present state of knowledge, though it also indicates areas of study in which the expertise of the agricultural economist might be particularly useful.