World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 35

World Food Policy 12   10   8   11.28   7.76   6   4   2   0   1.80   1.72   3.52   Sector's  share  in   Share  of  national   Share  of  national   Share  of  national   Sector's  expanded   national  value   value  added   value  added   value  added   share  in  national   added   through  forward   through  backward   through  all   value  added   links     links     linkages   Note: The first column shows the share of the sum of the sectors’ values added as measured by national accounts. The second and third columns show the components “forward” and “backward,” respectively. The fourth column presents the sum of the previous two links. And the fifth column shows the end result— the sum of the first and fourth columns: the expanded VA. Source: Authors’ calculations using the methodology of linkages presented in the text, based on the latest available Chilean national accounts.     Figure 1. VA of the Expanded Food and Forestry Product Sector as a Percent of Total National VA, 2008 assessment of the contribution of a sector to employment, poverty reduction, rural– urban migration contribution to culture, the environment (positive and negative) economic viability of traditional peoples, and contribution to the landscape. Previous, similar exercises (de Ferranti, et al. 2005) have looked at the integration of agriculture with the rest of the economy in Mexico, Colombia, and Chile, and show that this integration is correlated with the level of development. As one would expect, with a more refined division of labor and economic specialization—enhanced by trade openness—agriculture’s share in national GDP declines with the growth of linkages with the rest of the economy. A better appreciation of the evolving structure of the agro-food sector—and of the importance of agricultural policy beyond the farm gate—could be heightened by moving beyond a superficial emphasis of many economists and policymakers on the primary sector in national accounts. 34