food prices

This article reviews China’s agricultural and food policy with specific focus on recent challenges, initial policy responses and their consequences, and re-adjusting policies. Despite remarkable achievements in the past, China is facing several major challenges, in particular on ensuring sustainable agricultural growth, improving food security, and increasing farmers’ income. »

This working paper analyses how cities and secondary towns affect agricultural practices in their rural hinterlands. While most of the population in sub-Saharan Africa resides in cities and secondary towns, this relationship is not well understood. »

The longitudinal study synthesized in this report is the result of a 4-year collaboration between IDS, Oxfam and research partners. The research was carried out between 2012 and 2015 and involved annual visits to communities in 23 rural, urban and peri-urban sites, along with commissioned reviews of national-level prices and policies over the period. The social, economic and political adjustments made by people in developing countries in the wake of the global food crisis are the focus of this report. »

This paper investigates, by means of scenario analyses, how reductions in food loss and waste in the European Union (EU) could influence prices in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) – as a source and destination of traded agricultural and food products. Four 50 percent reduction scenarios are enacted, each focussing on a different type of food loss or waste. The analysis provides insights on potential impacts in terms of medium- to long-term global and local price changes in SSA and the mechanisms behind them (changes in production, consumption and trade patterns). »

Can the EU stem migration flows to Europe by supporting agriculture in countries of origin? In some situations, it can. The impact could be particularly large if Europe worked to increase the resilience of the food system and the people in countries with self-sustaining farming, thereby reducing reasons to migrate. Yet in countries that rely on market-oriented farming, the context is too complex to find a simple solution. »

This article argues that contrary to the opinions expressed by many commentators, the recent episode of higher prices for agricultural commodities is likely a transitory phenomenon. When compared to the last half-century, population growth is expected to be much slower in the coming decades, with nearly all of the growth occurring in lower income countries, where added population places less pressure on global markets. »