ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the role international trade can and should play in achieving food security and agricultural development goals in the developing countries. It discusses the concept of food security and the alternative means of achieving it, including international trade. It is not only individual purchasing power that determines food security. Unless adequate reserve stocks are held within the country, national purchasing power is an important determinant of national food security. The chapter also discusses the sources of agricultural development, the structural transformation an economy undergoes in the course of economic development, and the manner in which trade may facilitate or impede this process. Many developing countries have taken advantage of the growth in world trade to expand their exports. Several developing countries experienced substantial successes in increasing crop exports, including the Ivory Coast, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Brazil.
