The speaker will focus on the historical path dependency of agricultural development, mainly because it seems that this important perspective has not been sufficiently considered so far in the discussion of economic development. We are now living at atime of rapid economic globalization. The competitive market economy system has started to penetrate deeply into all the countries, both the developing and developed ones, through the so-called structural adjustment and reform policies. Today in the early 21st century, the simple principle of market-efficiency has become the most fundamental force of transformation of the world economy. Is this market efficiency appropriate for sustainable development worldwide in the present century? This is the basicquestion, we should ask now, especially in reconsidering the roles of agriculture in the pursuit of sustainable development in the world. The speaker's basic concept is that competitive market is of course necessary, but not sufficient for achieving sustainable development in the 21st century. In every region of the world, agriculture plays its own particular and essential roles depending on the stage of economic development. In many developing countries, agriculture is playing various developmental roles, such as the supply of food, foreign exchange, labor and capital to the national economy. In the developed countries, agriculture has additionally and gradually shifted its roles to the supply of safer food and environmental amenities to the people.At the same time, every type of agriculture in the world plays common roles, such as the realization of sustainable development typically exemplified by the preservation of the local, ecological, social and cultural environments and the identity of eachcommunity as a whole. These roles should be shared equally both by the developed and the developing countries.For the establishment of an economic system, which could be compatible with these vital roles of agriculture in achieving sustainable development, it is indispensable to clearly recognize the core characteristics of agriculture. Everywhere in the world,agriculture is embedded in the region's ecological characteristics and society, which are very different from region to region. And, it varies with the historical course of each country's development. Thus, agricultural development has been basically dependent upon the historical course of technological innovation and social evolution everywhere in the world.For example, agriculture in East Asia has been developed based upon the monsoon ecology. There, a small-scale family farming system has been developed, having emerged from the communal type ownership of fertile lands. European and American agriculture have been developed under less-humid natural conditions and the individualistic-type of ownership of extensive land. The speaker hardly believes that such a diversity will be overcome in a short term without the considerable sacrifice of the vulnerable groups and environment although many people including some agriculture-related people are attracted to the globalized and borderless economy. In other words, a global level of sustainable development will be achieved only when the diversity of world agriculture is taken seriously into consideration in the establishment and implementation of agricultural development strategies and policies. As one of the persons responsible for promoting the sustainable development of the present century, the speaker will aattempt to identify an economic system compatible with the coexistence of diverse agricultural systems in the world. For this purpose, he will emphasize the importance of a paradigm shift in agricultural research in the light of integration between realworld and scientific research after discussing the economist's perspective, a perspective essential to understanding the coexistence mechanism of diverse types of agricultures. He will insist that agricultural research should go beyond
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