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Book (stand-alone)Technical bookInternational Grain Reserves and other instruments to address volatility in grain markets 2009
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No results found.In the long view, recent grain price volatility is not anomalous. Wheat, rice, and maize are highly substitutable in the global market for calories, and when aggregate stocks decline to minimal feasible levels, prices become highly sensitive to small shocks, consistent with storage models. In this decade stocks declined due to high income growth and biofuels mandates. Recently, shocks including the Australian drought and biofuels demand boosts due to the oil price spike were exacerbated by a seq uence of trade restrictions by key exporters beginning in the thin global rice market in the fall of 2007 that turned market anxiety into panic. To protect vulnerable consumers, countries intervened in storage markets and, if exporters, to limit trade access. Recognizing these realities, vulnerable countries are building strategic reserves. The associated expense and negative incentive effects can be controlled if reserves have quantitative targets related to consumption needs of the most vulner able, with distribution to the latter only in severe emergencies. More ambitious plans to manipulate world prices via buffer stocks or naked short speculation have been proposed, to keep prices consistent with fundamentals. Past interventions of either kind have been expensive, ineffective, and generally short-lived. Further, there is no significant evidence that prices do not reflect fundamentals, including export market access.T his working paper disseminates the findings of work in progress t o encourage the exchange of ideas about development relevant issues. It was prepared as an input for the World Grain Forum 2009 and into subsequent discussions. -
DocumentPolicy briefPrice Volatility in Agricultural Markets
Evidence, impact on food security and policy responses
2011Recent bouts of extreme price volatility in global agricultural markets portend rising and more frequent threats to world food security. To reduce countries’ vulnerability, policies should improve market functioning and equip countries to better cope with the adverse effects of extreme volatility. -
Book (series)Technical studyThe effect of the National Food Reserve Agency on maize market prices in Tanzania 2018
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No results found.Tanzania’s National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) has a mandate to guarantee national food security through procuring, reserving and recycling grain stocks – primarily maize – and doing so in a cost effective manner. The agency procures maize at set, annual pan-territorial maize prices based on estimated production costs, and distributes maize free of charge or at a discount to targeted vulnerable populations. Surplus stocks are sold in the market, often also at subsidized prices to millers, or at market-related prices to other state or non-state actors. The perception exists that these procurement and sales activities are distortive; hence, this study adopts a time-series econometric approach to modeling price dynamics in selected regional wholesale maize markets in Tanzania with a view to isolate the NFRA’s impact on these markets. Results suggest the NFRA has had an insignificant impact on maize prices during 2010/11–2014/15 despite their pricing strategy and fairly significant presence in at least some regional markets. As such its activities only benefit a select number of maize suppliers, i.e., traders or farmers, or consumers, with limited spillover effects into markets more generally. With this in view, the NFRA should reconsider its strategy of offering a price premium for the maize it procures or selling maize at a discount, even though its mandate of providing subsidized or free maize to vulnerable people is not in question. Current storage capacity expansion plans are also not consistent with the NFRA’s food security mandate.
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Book (series)FlagshipThe State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021
Transforming food systems for food security, improved nutrition and affordable healthy diets for all
2021In recent years, several major drivers have put the world off track to ending world hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. The challenges have grown with the COVID-19 pandemic and related containment measures. This report presents the first global assessment of food insecurity and malnutrition for 2020 and offers some indication of what hunger might look like by 2030 in a scenario further complicated by the enduring effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also includes new estimates of the cost and affordability of healthy diets, which provide an important link between the food security and nutrition indicators and the analysis of their trends. Altogether, the report highlights the need for a deeper reflection on how to better address the global food security and nutrition situation.To understand how hunger and malnutrition have reached these critical levels, this report draws on the analyses of the past four editions, which have produced a vast, evidence-based body of knowledge of the major drivers behind the recent changes in food security and nutrition. These drivers, which are increasing in frequency and intensity, include conflicts, climate variability and extremes, and economic slowdowns and downturns – all exacerbated by the underlying causes of poverty and very high and persistent levels of inequality. In addition, millions of people around the world suffer from food insecurity and different forms of malnutrition because they cannot afford the cost of healthy diets. From a synthesized understanding of this knowledge, updates and additional analyses are generated to create a holistic view of the combined effects of these drivers, both on each other and on food systems, and how they negatively affect food security and nutrition around the world.In turn, the evidence informs an in-depth look at how to move from silo solutions to integrated food systems solutions. In this regard, the report proposes transformative pathways that specifically address the challenges posed by the major drivers, also highlighting the types of policy and investment portfolios required to transform food systems for food security, improved nutrition, and affordable healthy diets for all. The report observes that, while the pandemic has caused major setbacks, there is much to be learned from the vulnerabilities and inequalities it has laid bare. If taken to heart, these new insights and wisdom can help get the world back on track towards the goal of ending hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition in all its forms. -
Book (stand-alone)Technical bookClimate change and food security: risks and responses 2015
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End hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition are at the heart of the sustainable development goals. The World has committed to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2030. But climate change is undermining the livelihoods and food security of the rural poor, who constitute almost 80 percent of the world’s poor. The effects of climate change on our ecosystems are already severe and widespread. Climate change brings a cascade of impacts from agroecosystems to livelihoods. Climate change impacts directly agroecosystems, which in turn has a potential impact on agricultural production, which drives economic and social impacts, which impact livelihoods. In other words, impacts translate from climate to the environment, to the productive sphere, to economic and social dimensions. Therefore, ensuring food security in the face of climate change is among the most daunting challenges facing humankind. Action is urgently needed now to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience of food systems to ensure food security and good nutrition for all. -
BookletCorporate general interestEmissions due to agriculture
Global, regional and country trends 2000–2018
2021Also available in:
No results found.The FAOSTAT emissions database is composed of several data domains covering the categories of the IPCC Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector of the national GHG inventory. Energy use in agriculture is additionally included as relevant to emissions from agriculture as an economic production sector under the ISIC A statistical classification, though recognizing that, in terms of IPCC, they are instead part of the Energy sector of the national GHG inventory. FAO emissions estimates are available over the period 1961–2018 for agriculture production processes from crop and livestock activities. Land use emissions and removals are generally available only for the period 1990–2019. This analytical brief focuses on overall trends over the period 2000–2018.