Government and food distribution in LDCs: The Turkish experience

Opinions differ over the extent to which governments directly intervene in the actual buying and selling of food products, and thus act as intermediaries. Although private sector intermediaries continue to be the central core of the food distribution system in developing countries, the recent trend has been toward increasing government involvement. Patterns and characteristics of food distribution systems in use differ within developing countries. In this article, these differences are related systematically to the differences in the government environment, and is specifically illustrated by the situation in Turkey. Governmental factors are analyzed to show that differing food distribution practices are the result of the prevailing environmental conditions. The author also suggests that the introduction of certain food distribution insitutions, methods and techniques in developing countries is dependent upon appropriate governmental conditions.     

Food shopping orientations in Turkey: Some lessons for policy makers

Modernization of food retailing systems will continue to be among the major public policy problems facing the governments of developing countries. Throughout the developing world efforts are instigated by central and local governments to increase the efficiency of distribution systems. Unfortunately, many decisions are made without due regard to an understanding of consumers' food shopping orientations. The article first seeks to determine the grocery shopping habits and life-style orientations of a representative sample of female Turkish grocery shoppers. Second, the implications of the study are presented for policy makers who view introduction of large self-service supermarket-type stores as a panacea of Turkey's food retailing system.     

Organising agriculture in the year 2000

How much of the world's potential food production is realised depends on how effectively agriculture is organised. The authors evaluate the effects of alternative agricultural systems on food production, consumption and trade growth rates in the food-deficit, developing countries. The effects of these alternative agricultural systems on production and trade in the rest of the world are also discussed. They conclude with a review of the specific characteristics of the alternative systems and examine the role each is likely to play in organising agriculture in the year 2000.     

First foods: Diet quality among infants aged 6–23 months in 42 countries

Diet quality is closely linked to child growth and development, especially among infants aged 6–23 months who need to complement breastmilk with the gradual introduction of nutrient-rich solid foods. This paper links Demographic and Health Survey data on infant feeding to household and environmental factors for 76,641 children in 42 low- and middle-income countries surveyed in 2006–2013, providing novel stylized facts about diets in early childhood. Multivariate regressions examine the associations of household socioeconomic characteristics and community level indicators of climate and infrastructure with dietary diversity scores (DDS). Results show strong support for an infant-feeding version of Bennett's Law, as wealthier households introduce more diverse foods at earlier ages, with additional positive effects of parental education, local infrastructure and more temperate agro-climatic conditions. Associations with consumption of specific nutrient-dense foods are less consistent. Our findings imply that while income growth is indeed an important driver of diversification, there are strong grounds to also invest heavily in women’s education and food environments to improve diet quality, while addressing the impacts of climate change on livelihoods and food systems. These results reveal systematic patterns in how first foods vary across developing countries, pointing to new opportunities for research towards nutrition-smart policies to improve children’s diets.     

Food distribution within the family: Evidence and implications for research and programmes

A framework for analysing intra-family distribution of food as part of the aetiology of protein-energy malnutrition of children and women is proposed in this article. Results of representative sample surveys in developing countries are reviewed; few bear directly on this issue, but it appears that misallocation of food is most likely to be an important cause of malnutrition in South Asia. Suggestions are made for the further development of information by nutritional surveillance systems and secondary analyses of survey data.     

Improving developing country food security through aquaculture development—lessons from Asia

This paper provides a framework for examining aquaculture’s linkages to food and nutritional security by elucidating key hypotheses concerning the role of aquaculture in household food and income systems in developing countries. Taking examples from developing Asia, where aquaculture showed a steady growth over the last decade, the implications of aquaculture development are examined from the standpoint of its impact on employment, income and consumption. Analysis revealed clear evidence of positive income and consumption effects of aquaculture on households. However, employment effects are still not significant. The context of targeting small-scale and subsistence-oriented farmers as a means of improving food security in the developing countries has also been analyzed by identifying key socio-economic and policy factors affecting aquaculture adoption and its impact on the poor. The paper concludes that national policies for aquaculture development will need to concurrently address the food security and poverty questions more sharply than has been done at present, by providing institutional and infrastructure support for access to resources such as land and water and to markets by poor households. Finally, more empirical evidence should be collected on the varied opportunities aquaculture would provide to improve the income, employment and food consumption levels within households.     

Population,food and agricultural development: A medium-term view

Trends identified in 86 developing countries over the last 15–20 years indicate that the increase in food production was less than that in domestic demand for food in as many as 53, and 34 failed even to keep up with population growth. The author presents the likely perspective for the next 10 years. His analysis focuses on accelerating the increase in food production; an equitable and efficient distribution particularly among the poorer sections of the population; increasing employment in agriculture and related sectors; and increasing the share of developing countries in expanded trade in agriculture products.     

Investment opportunities in food production in LDCs

The potential food deficit in many developing countries creates opportunities for foreign commercial investment in food production. The factors influencing the profitability of such investment — agricultural, economic, social, political and investment factors — are examined in this article. Dr Schmid has used these five factors to identify a number of countries where the potential for profitable investment is high. He illustrates the range of good investment opportunities by describing the potential of eight countries — Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Pakistan, Thailand, Kenya, the Malagasy Republic and the Sudan.     

The impact of food safety standards on processed food exports from developing countries

This paper examines the impact of food safety standards on processed food exports in developing countries. A panel data econometric analysis of processed food exports in developing countries was undertaken. The Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standard (SPS) is incorporated into the model to capture the impact of food safety standards. The empirical model shows that food safety standards imposed by developed countries could impede processed food exports from developing countries. This could emerge because practically, SPS is less transparent than tariffs or quotas. There is an ample room for developed countries to tweak the standards stronger than necessary to achieve optimal levels of social protection, and to twist the related testing and certification procedures to make their competing imports more competitive. In addition, limited supply-side capacity of developing countries, especially in terms of resources, manpower as well as institution, constrains the countries to overcome food safety standards. Because of the potential benefits that could emerge from imposing food safety standards such as a reduction in transaction costs and trade friction, developing countries should view SPS not just as a trade barrier but also as an opportunity to upgrade quality standard and market sophistication. Supply-side capacity in developing countries needed to be improved, especially upgrading agriculture sector. Multilateral efforts are also needed to mobilize additional financial and technical assistance to help redress constraints in developing countries in meeting the required food safety standards imposed by developed countries.     

Sustainable food systems for healthy diets in Europe and Central Asia: Introduction to the special issue

This Special Issue highlights various good practices and food policy discussion in relation to the transformation of current food systems toward their social, environmental and economical sustainability. The papers describe policies, programmes and initiatives in developing and advanced economies of Europe and Central Asia that refer to the core elements of food systems, such as food supply, food environments, and consumers. The shared opinions, analyses, studies and approaches, experiences and insights contribute to a better understanding of regional specificities and support the efforts to guide the complex food systems’ transformation for their improved capacity to deliver healthy diets.     

Fish as food : Present contribution and potential

The author gives an account of the importance of fish as a source of animal protein and as an appreciated food, particularly in developing countries. Despite declining growth rates in food fish production in recent years, there is considerable potential for increasing supplies in order to maintain the role of fish. The relatively low cost of many fish-producing systems should encourage increased exploitation of fishery resources for food purposes. This will not be achieved, however, unless sustained efforts in research and development are ensured. Collaboration on an international scale and financial support from developed countries will be required.     

Cereal imports by developing countries: Trends and determinants

After reviewing recent trends of cereal imports of developing countries by region, by income group, and by commodity, the determinants of these imports are analysed by investigating both structural, long-term factors as well as temporary, short-term factors. Level of economic development and population density on arable land are found to be statistically the most significant long-run factors explaining cereal imports by developing countries, while food aid is statistically the most significant short-run factor.     

Post-green revolution food systems and the triple burden of malnutrition

Developing country food systems have changed dramatically since the Green Revolution period. At the same time, malnutrition still represents a challenge and is now understood to encompass the three simultaneous dimensions of undernourishment, micronutrient deficiencies, and over-nutrition manifest in overweight and obesity. These changes in food systems and in the understanding of the global malnutrition challenge necessitate fresh thinking about food systems-based strategies to reduce malnutrition. This paper introduces a special section that offers such new perspectives. We discuss trends with respect to indicators of the triple burden of malnutrition to understand the extent of global malnutrition challenges and then relate those to food systems transformation in developing countries.     

Improving food retailing in developing Asian countries

The adoption of horizontal and vertical integration in retail systems in the marketing of food in developing countries has long been the recommendation of researchers in this field. The author suggests that such proposals may not achieve the desired results for the poorer consumers in low-income Asian countries. An alternative approach, based upon the strengthening and improvement of traditional methods, is suggested as a more appropriate course of action in those countries.     

Agricultural technologies for climate change in developing countries: Policy options for innovation and technology diffusion

Climate has obvious direct effects on agricultural production. The reverse is more apparent than ever as greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture are tallied. The development and effective diffusion of new agricultural practices and technologies will largely shape how and how well farmers mitigate and adapt to climate change. This adaptation and mitigation potential is nowhere more pronounced than in developing countries where agricultural productivity remains low; poverty, vulnerability and food insecurity remain high; and the direct effects of climate change are expected to be especially harsh. Creating the necessary agricultural technologies and harnessing them to enable developing countries to adapt their agricultural systems to changing climate will require innovations in policy and institutions as well. Potential constraints to innovation involve both the private and public sectors in both developing and developed countries. The process of transferring agricultural innovations across agroecological and climatic zones is often subject to agronomic constraints. Often, the most binding constraints occur at the adoption stage, with several factors that potentially impede poor farmers’ access to and use of new technologies. Based on discussions of these constraints, we derive six policy principles and use these principles to suggest several specific investments and policy priorities.     

Conceptualizing sustainable diets in Vietnam: Minimum metrics and potential leverage points

A major barrier to achieving sustainable diets is the lack of clearly defined and agreed upon intervention points that will positively influence multiple sectors of the food system. There is an urgent need to understand what policy approaches and interventions will most effectively enhance the sustainability of diets in rapidly urbanizing low- and middle-income countries. To address this need, this work combines the input of diverse stakeholders and analysis of existing datasets to develop a conceptual framework for sustainable diets that is locally relevant to Vietnam using a process that is generalizable to other developing countries. The resulting framework includes 235 unique, measurable indicators within eight domains: (1) food production, (2) food processing and distribution, (3) food loss and waste, (4) food access and consumption, (5) food and water safety, (6) nutrition, (7) sociopolitical context, and (8) environmental impact. This conceptual framework was employed in a participatory workshop that brought together 50 Vietnamese stakeholders from diverse areas of expertise to identify and prioritize specific metrics for measuring sustainable diets. Based on the results of the stakeholder workshop, expert interviews, and characterized datasets, a comprehensive set of minimum metrics for each domain was produced and key leverage points that are likely to have an impact across multiple sectors were identified. These leverage points include food quality and safety, agricultural chemical usage, food waste, and water management. The analysis is expected to contribute to evidence-based policymaking in Vietnam to cultivate more sustainable diets.     

Rising food prices and undernourishment: A cross-country inquiry

Households’ welfare in developing countries has been hit by dramatic food prices increases which occurred between 2005 and 2008. In this paper, we adopt a partial equilibrium approach to analyze the short-time effects of a staple food price increase on nutritional attainments, as a measure of welfare. The analysis consists of first approximating complete food-demand systems and then performing household level micro-simulations. Instead of focusing on a single country profile, we provide a more complete snapshot by comparing the evidence through a cross-country assessment made possible by the use of nationally representative household surveys. Comparability is assured by the adoption of the same methodological choices in the treatment of the micro data. We find that food price spikes not only reduce the mean consumption of dietary energy, but also worsen the distribution of food calories, further deteriorating the nutritional status of populations. We also discovered that access to agricultural land plays a significant role in ensuring adequate nutritional attainments in rural areas, and surprisingly, even in urban areas.     

Does trade openness contribute to food security? A dynamic panel analysis

Despite significant progress in the fight against hunger during the last decades, food insecurity remains a major problem in many countries, especially developing ones. In this study, we use a large cross-country data to investigate the impact of trade openness and other factors on food security, measured by dietary energy consumption. We employ a system GMM approach to account for unobserved heterogeneity, correlated individual effects and potential endogeneity of the explanatory variables. The empirical results reveal that trade openness and economic growth exert positive and significant impacts on dietary energy consumption, and also contribute to improvements in dietary diversity. The results are robust to the inclusion of additional variables capturing specific agro-climatic constraints (e.g. weather-related) and regional/country characteristics and to the sample composition. Most geographical regions are found to have significantly higher food security levels compared to Sub-Saharan Africa. Additional results indicate that besides calorie consumption, trade openness also improves dietary diversity and diet quality-related aspects of food security.     

Analyzing the relationships between information technology, inputs substitution and national characteristics based on CES stochastic frontier production models

This research examines four interrelated issues at the country level: the value of information technology (IT), inputs substitution and complement, the complementarity phenomenon created by IT and national characteristics, and the productivity paradox, jointly and critically from a global perspective, using the so-called productive efficiency as the performance measure. To that end, we develop the three-factor constant elasticity of substitution (CES) stochastic production frontier model and apply it to a set of panel data from 15 countries over the period 1993–2003, along with the traditional two-factor CES models, within the one- and two-equation frameworks. In the two-equation setting, six national characteristics are selected as the contributing factors of the productive efficiency. The findings include: (i) the value of IT as measured by the productive efficiency is duly recognized: (ii) the productivity paradox is found to be absent from the production process in a majority of developed and developing countries considered, rejecting the existing argument that the paradox exists only in developing economies but does not exist in developed countries; however, the developed countries have used IT capital in their production systems more productively efficiently than the developing nations; (iii) traditional capital (non-IT capital), traditional labor, and IT capital are not pairwise substitutable, contrary to the notion that they are pairwise substitutable at the firm level; (iv) constant returns to scale, as commonly assumed, are not supported by the data; (v) different national characteristics affect a country's output (represented by gross domestic product or GDP) and its productive efficiency differently; and (vi) the complementarity phenomenon is observed in most of the countries (developed and developing) under study.     

GM-free private standards and their effects on biosafety decision-making in developing countries

We provide a comprehensive review of international cases where GM-free private standards set up by food companies in developed countries have influenced biosafety policymaking in developing countries. We find 29 cases where private importers have directly or indirectly affected policy decisions in 21 countries. Most of the cases relate irrational fear of export losses to excessively precautionary decisions. These cases are based on two generally misleading premises: the belief that Europe or Japan represents the only market for exports, and the perception that non-GM segregation is infeasible or prohibitively costly in all situations. Our study also demonstrates the importance of information asymmetries across countries and agents and the role of risk aversion in seemingly irrational decision-making. The combination of these four factors helps us explain why presumed but unproven expected commercial losses still represents a significant impediment to biosafety policymaking in developing countries.