ABSTRACT
Food aid from all developed country donors has played a declining role in assistance to developing countries. Food aid as a proportion of imports by low-income, food-deficit countries has generally fallen from approximately 30 percent in the early 1970s to about 15 percent in the early 1990s. The United States provided close to 60 percent of global cereal food aid in Trade Years 1987 to 1992. The United States provides a wide array of commodities through its food aid programs. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that in developing countries about one person in every five suffers from chronic malnutrition. Food aid may also be an inefficient form of resource transfer compared to the provision of cash assistance. The Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act 1990 incorporated some of the most significant changes in US food aid policy in decades. During the 1980s, a growing share of world food aid was provided through local purchases and triangular transactions.
