ABSTRACT
Professor Alain de Janvry argues that the Indian government has at times intervened in an exceptional way to overvalue food and agricultural commodities. By 1964–1965, the policy of denying the agricultural sector in India had reached something of a natural limit. The ungenerous terms of trade that had been offered to Indian agriculture had become such a burden on India’s own production performance as to finally pose a clear and present danger to the short-run welfare of urban consumers. Despite some overvaluation of agricultural products in Western European countries, continued agricultural productivity growth will ensure that the real price paid by consumers for food will not only remain low, but may even continue to fall. Professor de Janvry’s paper is noteworthy for its attempt to view the food and agricultural policies of the United States from within the same conceptual framework to bear on food policies in India, Colombia, and Egypt.
