This report highlights the differential impacts that the world food crisis of 2006-2008 had on different countries, with the poorest being most affected.
This year’s report focuses on the costs of food price volatility, as well as the dangers and opportunities presented by high food prices. Climate change and an increased frequency of weather shocks, increased linkages between energy and agricultural markets due to growing demand for biofuels, and increased financialization of food and agricultural commodities all suggest that price volatility is here to stay. The report describes the effects of price volatility on food security and presents policy options to reduce volatility in a cost-effective manner and to manage it when it cannot be avoided.

The state of food insecurity in the world 2011: how does international price volatility affect domestic economies and food security?

• What are the economic linkages among agriculture, trade and poverty? • How do poor households adapt to trade reform? • How does agricultural trade reform affect countries at different levels of development? • How does trade affect food security? • What is the unfi nished agenda for agricultural trade policy reform? • How can trade work for the poor? 2005 Can trade work for the poor? The State of Food and Agriculture 2005 examines the many ways in which trade and trade liberalization affect the poor and food-insecure. It is found that trade can be a catalyst for change, promoting conditions that enable the poor to raise their incomes and live longer, healthier and more productive lives. But because the poor often survive on a narrow margin, they are particularly vulnerable in any reform process, especially in the short run as productive sectors and labour markets adjust. Opening national agricultural markets to international competition – especially from subsidized competitors – before basic market institutions and infrastructure are in place can undermine the agriculture sector with long-term negative consequences for poverty and food security. Among the many important lessons from this analysis is the need for policy-makers to consider carefully how trade and complementary policies can be used to promote pro-poor growth. The report recommends a twin-track approach: investing in human capital, institutions and infrastructure to enable the poor to take advantage of trade-related opportunities, while establishing safety nets to protect vulnerable members of society. TH E TA TE O F FO O D A N D A G R IC U TU R E F U R T H E R I N F O R M A T I O N

The State of Food and Agriculture

A detailed retrospective of the Green Revolution, its achievement and limits in terms of agricultural productivity improvement, and its broader impact at social, environmental, and economic levels is provided. Lessons learned and the strategic insights are reviewed as the world is preparing a “redux” version of the Green Revolution with more integrative environmental and social impact combined with agricultural and economic development. Core policy directions for Green Revolution 2.0 that enhance the spread and sustainable adoption of productivity enhancing technologies are specified.

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Green Revolution: Impacts, limits, and the path ahead

Acceleration of progress in nutrition will require eff ective, large-scale nutrition-sensitive programmes that address key underlying determinants of nutrition and enhance the coverage and eff ectiveness of nutrition-specifi c interventions. We reviewed evidence of nutritional eff ects of programmes in four sectors—agriculture, social safety nets, early child development, and schooling. The need for investments to boost agricultural production, keep prices low, and increase incomes is undisputable; targeted agricultural programmes can complement these investments by supporting livelihoods, enhancing access to diverse diets in poor populations, and fostering women’s empowerment. However, evidence of the nutritional eff ect of agricultural programmes is inconclusive—except for vitamin A from biofortifi cation of orange sweet potatoes—largely because of poor quality evaluations. Social safety nets currently provide cash or food transfers to a billion poor people and victims of shocks (eg, natural disasters). Individual studies show some eff ects on younger children exposed for longer durations, but weaknesses in nutrition goals and actions, and poor service quality probably explain the scarcity of overall nutritional benefi ts. Combined early child development and nutrition interventions show promising additive or synergistic eff ects on child development—and in some cases nutrition—and could lead to substantial gains in cost, effi ciency, and eff ectiveness, but these programmes have yet to be tested at scale. Parental schooling is strongly associated with child nutrition, and the eff ectiveness of emerging school nutrition education programmes needs to be tested. Many of the programmes reviewed were not originally designed to improve nutrition yet have great potential to do so. Ways to enhance programme nutrition-sensitivity include: improve targeting; use conditions to stimulate participation; strengthen nutrition goals and actions; and optimise women’s nutrition, time, physical and mental health, and empowerment. Nutrition-sensitive programmes can help scale up nutrition-specifi c interventions and create a stimulating environment in which young children can grow and develop to their full potential.

Maternal and Child Nutrition 3 Nutrition-sensitive interventions and programmes: how can they help to accelerate progress in improving maternal and child nutrition?

Small farmers produce much of the developing world's food. Yet they are generally much poorer than the rest of the population in these countries, and are less food secure than even the urban poor. Furthermore, although the majority of the world's population will live in urban areas by 2030, farming populations will not be much smaller than they are today. For the foreseeable future, therefore, dealing with poverty and hunger in much of the world means confronting the problems that small farmers and their families face in their daily struggle for survival. The material for this book is derived from a study originally undertaken at the request of the World Bank in order to provide a specifically agricultural perspective to the revision of the Bank's rural development strategy. It has drawn on many years of specialized work within FAO and the World Bank, as well as in a number of other national and international institutions. Findings were supported by more than 20 case studies from around the world which analyzed innovative approaches to small farm or pastoral development. This book is intended for a wider audience than the original study, and it is hoped that policy makers, researchers, Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) and the agribusiness sector will all find its conclusions and recommendations interesting and thought provoking; and that they will carry the analysis further by applying the approach at national level to assist in the formulation of rural development strategies.

R. B. Sen

Papers

The State of Food and Agriculture