Smallholder Farmers in India: Food Security and Agricultural Policy

R.B. Singh Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific; P. Kumar Professor of Agricultural Economics and FAO consultant, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi; T. Woodhead FAO consultant: strategic aspects of rice-based systems

FAO RAP Publication March 2002

This is a FAO, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific publication.


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Rethinking UK Food Strategy

Susan Ambler-Edwards, Kate Bailey, Alexandra Kiff, Tim Lang, Robert Lee, Terry Marsden, David Simons, Hardin Tibbs

Chatham House 2009

A Chatham House Report


http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files/13248_r0109foodfutures.pdf

UK Food Supply Storm Clouds

Chatham House Project Research Team

Chatham House January 2008

A Chatham House Briefing Paper


http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files/10896_bp0108food.pdf

UK Food Supply in the 21st Century: The New Dynamic

Chatham House Project Research Team

Chatham House 2010/10/03

A Chatham House Briefing Paper


http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files/6487_foodprojectinfo.pdf

Agricultural Policies in OECD Countries: A Positive Reform Agenda

OECD Public Affairs Division

OECD June 2003

OECD Policy Brief


http://www.oecd.org/publications/Pol_brief

The Cost of Implementing Agricultural Policy

OECD Public Affairs Division

OECD August 2007

OECD Policy Brief


http://www.oecd.org/publications/Pol_brief

Developments in National Policies for Food and Nutrition Security in Brazil

Cecilia Rocha

Development Policy Review 2009

This article examines evaluation evidence on two of the most important recent initiatives in Brazil's policies for food and nutrition security (conditional cash transfers through Bolsa Familia and support for family agriculture through the Programa de Aquisicao de Alimentos). It also considers advances in older policies (such as the School Meals programme) and the work of the National Council for Food and Nutrition Security, which has culminated in national legislation establishing food and nutrition security as a right.


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Agricultural Policy Reform: Developments and Prospects

OECD Public Affairs Division

OECD June 2000

OECD Policy Brief


http://www.oecd.org/publications/Pol_brief

Agricultural Policy Reform in South Africa

OECD Public Affairs Division

OECD April 2006

OECD Policy Brief


http://www.oecd.org/publications/Pol_brief

Agricultural Policy Reform in Chile

OECD Public Affairs Division

OECD 2010/11/03

OECD Policy Brief


http://www.oecd.org/publications/Pol_brief

The World Food Crisis: What's Behind It and What We Can Do About It

Eric Holt-Gimenez

Institute for Food and Development Policy October 2008

The World Food Program's description of the global food crisis raises the specter of a natural disaster surging over an unaware populace that is helpless in the face of massive destruction. With billions of people at risk of hunger, the current food crisis is certainly massive and destructive. But the reasons so many people have limited access to food are anything but "natural". On the contrary, decades of skewed agricultural policies, inequitable trade, and unsustainable development have thrown the world's food systems into a volatile, boom and bust cycle and widened the gap between affluence and poverty.


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Free Trade Agreement in South East Asia and East Asia

La Via Campesina - International Farmers Movement

Sept. 2009

La Via Campesina South East Asia and East Asia organized their strategic meeting with alliances in Dae-gu, South Korea on December 1-5, 2008. Korean Women Peasant Association (KWPA) and Korean Peasant League (KPL) hosted the meeting. The objective of the meeting was to analyze the current financial crisis and its impact on the Asian population. Various experiences of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), struggle against FTAs and finding strategies for unified struggle against FTAs were shared. The FTAs/EPAs which have been implemented demonstrate the negative impact on agriculture and the environment. FTAs between developed and developing countries are always agreed by agreements which ignore developing countries. This book is a compilation of various papers that were presented at the strategic meeting in South Korea.


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Global Food Reserves: Framing the Context For a New Multilateralism

Robin Willoughby and Adam Parsons

Share The World's Resources October 2009

The issue of food reserves has received renewed attention from policymakers following the dramatic spikes in grain and oil prices since late 2006. In June 2008, the prices of basic foods on international markets reached their highest levels for 30 years, causing widespread chaos in many developing countries and pushing millions of people into chronic hunger. With cereal stocks-to-use ratios at a record low in 2008 (the second lowest level in 30 years), many governments reacted against the high cost of food imports by restocking national grain reserves, and in some cases by imposing temporary export bans or export taxes on staple food grains. Although agricultural commodity prices have since declined to 2007 levels, the structural problems underlying the volatility in international food prices remain. This paper sets out to provide a conceptual framework for how food reserves can be discussed as a potential policy response to the global food crisis and as part of a longer-term strategy to achieve universal food security.


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http://www.stwr.org/food-security-agriculture/global-food-reserves-a-key-step-towards-ending-hunger.html

The impact of the Global Economic Crisis on the Pacific Region

Simon Feeny

Oxfam 2010

This report examines the impacts of the Global Economic Crisis (GEC) on Pacific countries as part of an Oxfam International research project analysing the impacts of the economic crisis, and the responses to it, across 11 countries. As the crisis started to hit developing countries, Oxfam International initiated research to inform national and global program and policy responses to the crisis. The objectives of the research were to assess the human impacts of the economic crisis and to analyse whether responses by government, civil society and multilateral agencies were serving the interests of poor people. Oxfam Australia focused its attention, in part, on the Pacific Islands, to contribute to the global analysis.


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A Billion Hungry People: Governments and Aid Agencies Must Rise to the Challenge

Oxfam

January 2009

High food prices have brought into sharp focus an existing global food crisis that affects almost one billion people. Lasting solutions to the problem include adequate investment in agriculture, fairer trade, the redistribution of resources, and action on climate change. But hungry people cannot be fed on the hope of long-term solutions. Governments, supported by aid agencies and donors, must act now to provide systematic emergency assistance and longer-term support to those in need, and to better protect people in chronic poverty against shocks such as drought, floods, and market volatility.


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About Global Food Security

There are more than 1.02 billion hungry people in the world
Source:FAO 2010

Providing global food security is one of the principle challenges for humanity in current times. The scale of the challenge is immense. According to an FAO estimate over 1 billion people suffer from hunger. One sixth of all humanity currently goes hungry every day. This is a challenge that has reached unprecedented levels in recent years. There are more people hungry today than at any time since 1970.

Malnutrition has also been growing since the mid-1990s, and in 2008 was affecting approximately 915 million people. These trends are expected to worsen given high food prices, and structural issues relating to the recent downturn in the global economy.

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The Sir Ratan Tata Trust is one of the oldest philanthropic institutions in India, and has played a pioneering role in changing the traditional ideas of charity and introducing the concept of philanthropy. Through its grant making, the Trust supports efforts in the development of society, through institutional grants in areas of Education, Health, Arts & Culture, Enhancing Civil Society & Governance and Rural Livelihoods & Communities. Besides institutional grants, the Trust also makes individual grants for education and medical relief.
Nearly 70% of the tribal communities of India reside in central India, concentrated in about 110 districts within the nine central Indian states. The region is endowed with rich natural resources; however, issues such as abject poverty, primitive farming methods, improper use of water resources, naxalism, etc. ensure that this tribal belt lags behind other parts of India. Central India Initiative, one of the flagship initiatives of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, was initiated in 2004, with the basic objective of enhancing tribal livelihoods through a Natural Resource Management (NRM) based approach. Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI), a registered organization seeded by the Trust, is the nodal agency for the Central India Initiative.
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