IFPRI Policy Seminar - June 18, 2008

Imagine eating foods without absorbing harmful allergens and cholesterol into your body. Imagine farmlands in developing countries with environmental sensors that automatically release pesticides and fertilizers only when absolutely necessary. Imagine going to your nearest market and being able to modify the foods you purchase to suit your nutritional needs and tastes. The first two concepts are fast becoming a reality. The third appears to be on the horizon. These are some of the revolutionary means by which nanotechnology promises to transform the way we grow, process, and eat food.

This seminar addressed the growing importance of nanotechnology, the main applications being developed in food and agriculture, and the implications of these applications for the developing world.   Presentations by Mihail Roco (National Science Foundation), Hongda Chen (USDA/CSREES), and Guillaume Gruere (IFPRI).

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Watch video of the seminar on IFPRI's YouTube Channel.

        

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has recently compiled a web-base bibliography of peer-reviewed applied economics literature to assess the impact of genetically engineered (GE) crops in developing economies. All 190 articles currently in this database have been organized under four major themes that address the different areas of impact:  advantages to farmers, consumer preferences and willingness to pay, size and distribution of benefits, and international benefits of trade. The literature is searchable by author, year, and keywords.  If permission has been granted by publishers, the references include abstracts or links to full text. Whenever available, permanent links to each article’s website is provided, as well as links to full text.  As this literature is maintained on a regular basis and feed on outside contributions it will provide a valuable up-to -date tool for all researchers in the area, particularly for those in developing countries.

bEcon is updated every three months, and a CD-ROM is produced on an annual basis for those with limited or no internet access.

For more information on bEcon, visit http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/becon/becon.asp.

        

Policies for "Competitiveness with Inclusiveness"

Thomas Reardon and Ashok Gulati

A "supermarket revolution" has been underway in developing countries since the early 1990s. Supermarkets (here referring to all modern retail, which includes chain stores of various formats such as supermarkets, hypermarkets, and convenience and neighborhood stores) have now gone well beyond the initial upper- and middle-class clientele in many countries to reach the mass market. Within the food system, the effects of this trend touch not only traditional retailers, but also the wholesale, processing, and farm sectors. The supermarket revolution is a "two-edged sword." On the one hand, it can lower food prices for consumers and create opportunities for farmers and processors to gain access to quality-differentiated food markets and raise incomes. On the other hand, it can create challenges for small retailers, farmers, and processors who are not equipped to meet the new competition and requirements from supermarkets. Developing-country governments can put in place a number of policies to help both traditional retailers and small farmers pursue "competitiveness with inclusiveness" in the era of the supermarket revolution. Some countries are already taking such steps, and their experiences offer lessons for others...

Read the full policy brief.

        

This year’s World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is addressing “Combating land degradation for sustainable agriculture.” Sponsored by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the decision to focus on agriculture is particularly timely due to the rise in global food prices, and the impact this is having on the world’s poor farmers.

Although IFPRI has long studied land degradation, the problem is being further exacerbated by variables such as climate change and the desire to generate ever-higher yields. A recent IFPRI Discussion Paper examined the factors that influence crop yields and farmers’ use of inorganic fertilizer in Niger, with a call to further assess the relationship with land degradation. Land degradation is also a serious concern in the East African highlands, and a 2006 IFPRI book takes a look at strategies for sustainable land management in the region, based on materials from a related conference.

For more information, visit IFPRI’s Land Resource Management webpage. To learn more about UNCCD, visit http://www.unccd.int/main.php 

        

Maria Teresa stands with her children at the doorway of her two-room house in Los Baños, the Philippines. At first glance, all of her children look healthy, but according to a visiting nutrition counselor, they are all malnourished. The youngest, Joyme, a severely undernourished two-year-old girl, weighs just 16 pounds (7.3 kg).

They are entirely dependent the earnings of Maria’s husband, a day laborer. He takes home about $10 per week, when he gets work.

Maria tells the counselor that she prepares fish and instant noodles with egg for her family.  Later, she reluctantly admits that they eat only rice.

Globally, the price of rice has tripled since January 2007. While food price inflation affects all consumers, it hits the very poor hardest of all. For millions of poor Filipino families, buying rice at a market has become prohibitively expensive. Their main option now is to wait in long lines for government-subsidized rice and hope that the supply remains secure.

For information on rising food prices and IFPRI’s recommendations please visit www.ifpri.org/themes/foodprices/foodprices.asp

        

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is using World Environment Day 2008 to draw attention to the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  The Day highlights resources and initiatives that promote low carbon economies and lifestyles, such as improved energy efficiency, alternative energy sources, forest conservation, and eco-friendly consumption. The primary international celebration will take place in Wellington, New Zealand.
Although IFPRI has always focused on sustainable development, it is increasingly examining the impacts that climate change is having on the world’s poor, especially rural farmers.  IFPRI and FAO recently released a paper examining the Impact of Climate Change and Bioenergy on Nutrition. On May 7, IFPRI Division Director Mark Rosegrant testified before the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on the impact of biofuel production on high global food prices. A May 2008 IFPRI Discussion Paper assesses the impacts of a social forestry program in Indonesia that provided permits to farm on state-protected land in exchange for protecting remaining natural forestland, planting multistrata agroforests, and using recommended soil and water conservation.
For more information, visit IFPRI’s Climate Change and Bioenergy webpages. To learn more about World Environment Day, visit http://www.unep.org/wed/2008/english/.

        

The poor in developing countries will cope with rising food prices in two primary ways: (1) by reducing the amount of expensive meats, dairy, fruit, vegetables, and pulses (non-staple food) consumed, resulting in large declines in mineral and vitamin intakes -- with significant negative consequences for morbidity, mortality, cognitive abilities, and growth (preschool children and females of reproductive age, in particular, are at risk for these deficiencies and so will suffer the most from food price increases); (2) by reducing expenditures on non-food items, such as education, housing, and medical care.

Four basic factors drive the first conclusion:

1. Expenditures on non-staple foods by  poor consumers comprise 40-60% of total expenditures for food.
2. Demand for food staples (rice, wheat, maize, etc. depending on the geographical region and culture) is highly inelastic.  Income and price elasticities for food staples in the aggregate are low. 
3. In diets, minerals and vitamins are concentrated in non-staple foods; energy is concentrated in staple foods.
4. Current intakes of vitamins and minerals are already too low, resulting in high prevalence rates of micronutrient deficiencies.  Modest decreases in present intakes of minerals and vitamins will drive these prevalence rates significantly higher, with severe consequences for the nutritional status of the poor and public health.

Given these food consumption and nutrient intake patterns described in 1-4 above, the following empirical estimates can be drawn:

• A 50% increases in all food prices across the board (holding income constant) will result in a 30% decline in iron intake; this, in turn, will result in an increase in the prevalence rate of iron deficiency among women and children of 25% percentage points (e.g. if  currently the diets of women result in 60% consuming below the mean average iron requirement, then 85% will consume below the mean average iron requirement after the 50% price rise).

For more information see HarvestPlus Statement on Rising Food Prices (478K).

        

The complex causes of the current food and agriculture crisis require a comprehensive response. In view of the urgency of assisting people and countries in need, the first set of policy actions—an emergency package—consists of steps that can yield immediate impact:

1. expand emergency responses and humanitarian assistance to food-insecure people and people threatening government legitimacy,
2. eliminate agricultural export bans and export restrictions,
3. undertake fast-impact food production programs in key areas, and
4. change biofuel policies.

A second set of actions—a resilience package—consists of the following steps:

5. calm markets with the use of market-oriented regulation of speculation, shared public grain stocks, strengthened food-import financing, and reliable food aid;
6. invest in social protection;
7. scale up investments for sustained agricultural growth; and
8. complete the Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations.

Investment in these actions calls for additional resources. Policymakers should consider mobilizing resources from four sources: the winners from the commodity boom among countries; the community of traditional and new donor countries; direct or indirect progressive taxation and reallocation of public expenditures in the affected countries themselves; and mobilization of private sector finance, including through improved outreach of banking to agriculture.

Because of countries’ diverse situations, the design of programs must be country driven and country owned. Accountability for sound implementation must also rest with countries. At the same time, a new international architecture for the governance of agriculture, food, and nutrition is needed to effectively implement the initiatives described, and especially their international public goods components. Global and national action is needed, through existing mechanisms, well-coordinated special initiatives, and possibly a special fund.

To read the full paper, please visit http://www.ifpri.org/PUBS/ib/foodprices.asp

        

On May 7, 2008, Mark W. Rosegrant, Director of IFPRI's Environment and Production Technology Division, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on the impact of biofuels on grain prices and its policy implications. Dr. Rosegrant’s analysis focused on three potential scenarios:

1. Recent food price evolution with and without high biofuel demand
2. Impact of a freeze on biofuel production from all crops at 2007 levels
3. Impact of a moratorium (elimination) on biofuel production after 2007.

From the conclusion: "It is therefore important to find ways to keep biofuels from worsening the food-price crisis. In the short run, removal of ethanol blending mandates and subsidies and ethanol import tariffs, and in the United States—together with removal of policies in Europe promoting biofuels—would contribute to lower food prices. But for the longer term, it is even more critical to focus on increasing agricultural productivity growth and improving developing-country policies and infrastructure related to the storage, distribution, and marketing of food. These factors will continue to drive the future health of the agricultural sector and will play the largest role in determining the food security and human well-being of the world's poorer and more vulnerable populations."  Read full testimony.

        

© 2008, Augustine A. NdaghuDomitila Revilla Romero, 56, lives in a shantytown on the outskirts of Lima and works as a laundress to help support her three children, her nephew, and her daughter-in-law, all of whom earn increasingly precarious livings. But as food prices rise, Ms. Revilla is not only finding it harder to make ends meet, sometimes she cannot even put food on the table. It is a predicament that has left her in tears.

Ms. Revilla said that in March alone, the price of the cooking oil she buys increased 75 percent, from the equivalent of US$1.43 to US$2.50, while the price of rice rose by more than 50 percent, from US$0.64 to US$1.00. For someone who earns US$1.80 per dozen items laundered, and who already spends a disproportionate amount of her income on food, these increases mean that Ms. Revilla and her family will be going hungry far more often.

For more on how rising food prices are affecting the poorest and most vulnerable, and on emerging solutions to this crisis, see IFPRI's Food Prices page…