ABSTRACT
The trend in the international debate on food security is shown in Figure 1. Although the line separating one phase from the next is not clear-cut, it is still possible to identify changes of priorities and policies over time. Main features of the international debate on food security https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
Perception of food insecurity as a
supply problem
production problem
poverty problem
Overriding objective
closing any food gaps through trade and aid
growth of domestic food prodution
increase in purchasing power
Indicator of food security
domestic food supply per capita
domestic food production per capita
-domestic real income per capita
-real income per capita of various population groups (income distribution)
Specific food security policies
-no explicit food security policies (except in emergencies)
-imports of food if neededfor supplies to urban population
-food aid (Food Aid Convention)
-establisshment of national early-warning systems
national food strategies
-increase in domestic food production (price policy; technical progress)
-restructuring of grain makets
-establishment of national emergency food reserves
National Food Security Action Plans, especially for African countries
short-term:
-poverty alleviation measures
-analysis of rural and urban groups suffering from food insecurity
-selective government action to reduce transitory and chronic food insecunrity and general subsidies
long-term:
-measures to increase economic growth
-social security systems
General development strategy
-industrial development on the model of the industrialized countries (urban bias)
-integration into the world market
-promotion of cash crop production
inward-oriented development
-collective self-reliance
-food self-sufficiency
-at least partial delinking from the world market
-structural adjustment pro-grammes (reform of macro and sectoral policies)
-promotion of productive investment in agriculture and industry
-trade based on comparative advantages
Theoretical debate
-modernization theories
-economic growth theories and "strikle-down".
-classical/neo-classical foreign trade theories
-dependency theories/theories of peripheral capitalism
-dissociation concepts
-terms-of-trade debate
highly controversial
-neo-libeeral concepts (get prices right)
-growth with equity
-entitlement approach(Sen)
-employment-oriented concepts (ILO)
Context
growth optimism in the 1950s and 1960
-optuinsm about ability to plan development
-food security not on agenda as a problem
-world food crisis 1972 - 1974
-growing agricultural protectionism and self-sufficiency in dustrialized contries
-emerging pessimism about development
-produtiom successes achieved in "Green Revolution"
-growing criticism of food aid
deterioration of term of trade/pessimism about trade
-African, famine 1983/84
-worsening of debt crisis
-disillusionment over trickle-down mechanism
-limits to growth
-pessimism about planning
