Agricultural Trade, Policy Reforms, and Global Food Security


Book Description

This book explores the potential for policy reform as a short-term, low-cost way to sustainably enhance global food security. It argues that reforming policies that distort food prices and trade will promote the openness needed to maximize global food availability and reduce fluctuations in international food prices. Beginning with an examination of historical trends in markets and policies, Anderson assesses the prospects for further reforms, and projects how they may develop over the next fifteen years. He pays particular attention to domestic policy changes made possible by the information technology revolution, which will complement global change to deal directly with farmer and consumer concerns.







World Development Report 2008


Book Description

The world's demand for food is expected to double within the next 50 years, while the natural resources that sustain agriculture will become increasingly scarce, degraded, and vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In many poor countries, agriculture accounts for at least 40 percent of GDP and 80 percent of employment. At the same time, about 70 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas and most depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. 'World Development Report 2008' seeks to assess where, when, and how agriculture can be an effective instrument for economic development, especially development that favors the poor. It examines several broad questions: How has agriculture changed in developing countries in the past 20 years? What are the important new challenges and opportunities for agriculture? Which new sources of agricultural growth can be captured cost effectively in particular in poor countries with large agricultural sectors as in Africa? How can agricultural growth be made more effective for poverty reduction? How can governments facilitate the transition of large populations out of agriculture, without simply transferring the burden of rural poverty to urban areas? How can the natural resource endowment for agriculture be protected? How can agriculture's negative environmental effects be contained? This year's report marks the 30th year the World Bank has been publishing the 'World Development Report'.




International Trade and Agriculture


Book Description

In an increasingly globalized world, an understanding of the role of international trade is central to the study of agricultural economics and agribusiness. This text interweaves these two elements, explaining the theories and practices relevant to agricultural trade. Using real-life examples to explain theories and models, the text prepares readers to critically examine agricultural trade issues. In addition to its comprehensive coverage, each chapter features chapter overviews and summaries, key concepts, questions for review, and suggested readings. Explains the theories and practices relevant to agricultural trade. Uses real-life agricultural examples to convey theories and models. Offers an international perspective on an increasingly globalized market. Features extensive pedagogical material, including chapter overviews and summaries, key concepts, review questions, and suggested readings.







Agricultural Trade Policy and Food Security in the Caribbean


Book Description

Agricultural trade is a major factor determining food security in Caribbean countries. In these small open economies, exports are essential, whilst imports provide a large part of the food supply. This book examines various dimensions of trade policy and related issues and suggests policies to address trade and food security and rural development linkages. It is as a guide and reference documents for agricultural trade policy analysts, trade negotiators, policy-makers and planners in both the public and private sectors.




Pricing Irrigation Water


Book Description

As globalization links economies, the value of a country's irrigation water becomes increasingly sensitive to competitive forces in world markets. Water policy at the national and regional levels will need to accommodate these forces or water is likely to become undervalued. The inefficient use of this resource will lessen a country's comparative advantage in world markets and slow its transition to higher incomes, particularly in rural households. While professionals widely agree on what constitutes sound water resource management, they have not yet reached a consensus on the best ways of implementing policies. Policymakers have considered pricing water - a debated intervention - in many variations. Setting the price 'right,' some say, may guide different types of users in efficient water use by sending a signal about the value of this resource. Aside from efficiency, itself an important policy objective, equity, accessibility, and implementation costs associated with the right pricing must be considered. Focusing on the examples of China, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa, and Turkey, Pricing Irrigation Water provides a clear methodology for studying farm-level demand for irrigation water. This book is the first to link the macroeconomics of policies affecting trade to the microeconomics of water demand for irrigation and, in the case of Morocco, to link these forces to the creation of a water user-rights market. This type of market reform, the contributors argue, will result in growing economic benefits to both rural and urban households.




The Economics of Agricultural Development


Book Description

Persistent problems with poverty, rapid population growth and malnutrition in many developing countries are among the most serious issues facing the world today. This book examines the causes, severity and effects of these problems, as well as potential solutions. The authors consider the implications of globalization of goods, services and capital for agriculture, poverty and the environment; and identify linkages in the world food system, stressing how agricultural and economic situations in poor countries affect industrialized nations and vice versa. Focusing on the role that agriculture can play in improving economic and nutritional wellbeing and how that role might be enhanced, this book is essential reading.







Productivity Growth in Agriculture


Book Description

This volume is written primarily for agricultural economists doing research on productivity. It includes discussions of the theoretical underpinnings of productivity measurement as well as the many practical considerations that go into translating this theory into actual measures of aggregated outputs and inputs. The unifying concept of agricultural productivity used across the chapters of this volume is aggregate total factor productivity (TFP) of the sector. The volume also contains detailed analysis of the underlying causes of agricultural productivity growth. Part I (chapters 2-6) examines agricultural productivity in high-income and transition countries. Part II (chapters 7-11) examines agricultural productivity growth and its driving forces in five important agricultural producers in Asia and Latin America. Part III (chapters 12-14) focuses on measuring and identifying constraints to agricultural productivity growth in sub-Saharan Africa. Part IV (chapters 15-16) gives a global perspective on agricultural productivity.