Ethiopia's agrarian policy and its effects

The author examines the effects of Ethiopia's agarian policy on food and fuelwood scarcities. He argues that the policy, which is contingent upon various cooperative strategies of maximization of self-interest, and whose aims are to increase productivity and achieve food self-sufficiency, is misguided, and contradicts its stated objectives. Above all, the policy exacerbates the worsening problem of fuelwood shortages, and is creating conditions which will make food scarcer still.     

Developing an expert system on project evaluation: Part 1: Structuring the expertise

This paper reports interim results obtained from research on the development of an expert system originally intended to be advisory to managers at all levels of R&D on the selection of projects. Whilst diversity had been expected, when the 'Experts' were consulted, there was a total absence of agreement as to how projects were selected.
This led to a shift in objectives. The first shift was from project selection to project evaluation which was identified as the real activity which managers undertook in conditions where the number of projects was likely to exceed the resources available. The second was to try to classify projects such that projects in one class might have similar criteria for evaluation
In pursuit of these new objectives, the rigorous thinking necessary to structure the guidance of the 'Experts' into an expert system gave new insights into the nature of projects themselves and their management in support of corporate strategy. This paper sets these out and will be followed by Pt. II which will report on structuring the actual Expert System, and Pt. Ill giving the details of the managerial approach and the decision support process of the actual expert system     

After the famine: food aid policy and management issues in sub-Saharan Africa

The large amount of food aid that was required to meet Africa's emergency food situation resulted in the postponement of some fundamental decisions that were being taken about food aid use in sub-Saharan Africa. Now the donor community and recipient governments are again giving priority to integrating food aid with other available resources in order to meet longer-term food policy and wider development objectives. This paper looks at some of the policy and management issues which need to be addressed if the effectiveness of food aid assistance is to be improved in the current African context. Shortages of locally qualified personnel to administer project food aid have proven to be a major bottleneck in most sub-Saharan countries. Most sub-Saharan states receive food aid from a variety of sources: multilateral, bilateral and a few private-voluntary organizations. As a result, countervailing priorities are set by the donors themselves and give rise to conflicts. The recent drought and famine conditions have compounded an image problem in which food aid is narrowly identified by recipient governments as a project resource to be used primarily for nutrition interventions and for the rural sector. The image problem often limits project selection and overlooks innovative uses of food aid. Many sub-Saharan countries are starting to acquire considerable amounts of counterpart funds from program food aid. However, their use is not coherently integrated with the total aid flow. Multi-year programming has emerged as a management issue which has unnecessarily divided the food aid donor community. The fundamental issue is flexibility in programming, not multi-year programming. The major policy objective now facing the food aid donor community and recipient countries is how to lower emergency allocations while simultaneously increasing project and program aid. Most nonfood-aid donor agencies and their constituent bodies do not treat food aid as a valid economic resource, thereby undermining its effectiveness. The eventual success of food aid use in Africa may be a function of the recipient governments and other major donor and financial organizations.     

Meeting world food objectives : Towards an improved trade environment in agriculture

The global economic crisis of the early 1980s has left developing countries with their agricultural sectors starved of investment and their overall development prospects radically trimmed. Growing hunger and malnutrition are among the visible symptoms of a world food system in disarray. But the lessons of recession could stimulate review of entrenched attitudes and foster the will to address future trade policy objectives and adjustments against the background of increasing acknowledged interdependence of development partners and the ever more urgent need to serve world food objectives.     

Food aid: pitfalls and potential

This article poses the question of whether it is possible to use food aid to meet short-run needs while supporting and not undermining the achievement of long-term goals of self-reliance at the household and national levels. Often either some degree of self-reliance is sacrificed or people will suffer malnutrition. Food aid may be used to generate employment for low income families (food-for-work schemes), to reduce food prices during shortages by increasing the supply, and it can be delivered to target groups as a direct entitlement. What happens to food after delivery is important: often it goes to family members not targeted. Other factors (e.g. measles) affect nutritional status. Food aid must often continue for long periods to avoid nutritional regression. The stage in distribution at which food is used is important; e.g. a measles epidemic might affect the consumption but not the supply of food, or poor targeting might benefit families who do not need it. Complementary actions may improve conditions; for example, if food is sold, increasing income improves the situation. A problem with provision of food is depression of local prices, reducing incentives to produce food locally. Most food aid does not increase demand, and in fact if the effect is to change tastes away from local products demand may be reduced. The effect on demand depends on the type of aid scheme, the timing and duration, and the locality of the project. Most objectives are better achieved by the use of cash aid, which promotes rather than weakens local food producers' incentives, reduces transport and storage, redistributes food, does not affect taste, and adds income by contributing to local decentralized transport. Food aid is a good temporary intervention, but cash aid should be used in the long term.     

Minimising the harm to biodiversity of producing more food globally

Should farming and conservation policies aim broadly to separate land for nature and land for production (land sparing) or integrate production and conservation on the same land (wildlife-friendly farming)? Most studies that try to address this question suffer from flaws in sampling design, inappropriate metrics, and/or failure to measure biodiversity baselines. We discuss how these failings can be addressed, and what existing information tells us about the key debates on this topic. The evidence available suggests that trade-offs between biodiversity and yield are prevalent. While there are some wildlife-friendly farming systems that support high species richness, a large proportion of wild species cannot survive in even the most benign farming systems. To conserve those species, protection of wild lands will remain essential. Sustainable intensification could help to facilitate sparing of such lands, provided that as much attention is given to protecting habitats as to raising yields. We discuss the general circumstances under which yield increases can facilitate land sparing, recognising that policies and social safeguards will need to be context-specific. In some situations, bringing degraded lands into production could help reduce pressure on wild lands, but much more information is needed on the biodiversity implications of using degraded lands. We conclude that restricting human requirements for land globally will be important in limiting the impacts on biodiversity of increasing food production. To achieve this, society will need to integrate explicit conservation objectives into local, regional and international policies affecting the food system.     

Women and food aid: a developmental perspective

The unique aspect of food aid projects is that food, rather than money, is used for achieving developmental objectives. As food is usually controlled by women, they benefit most from considering it to be of economic value. Poor women seem to be short of resources--time and money--which can be supplemented by food aid. Through its income-transfer effect, food aid can enable women to work fewer hours/day and thus have more discretionary time. It can also provide, directly or indirectly, the cash necessary for women to use skills they already possess to set themselves up in small businesses. Food aid projects achieve their developmental objectives through: the nutritional content of the distributed commodity; the income transfer effect; cooperatives or associations; specific activities associated with the project; community improvement aspects resulting from the project; and provision of budgetary support to release resources for additional developmental activities. There are a number of ways through which food aid exerts its effect on women from a developmental perspective. Consumption of the food aid commodity provides women with an improved diet. Food aid as an income transfer can enable women to have more discretionary time. Providing women with opportunities for income-generating activities is an important aspect of development. Women's cooperatives or associations funded by food aid commodities can provide women with income. Current food aid projects, if properly planned, can be beneficial to women without the incorporation of specific activities or skills training. One way that food aid helps women gain more time is by freeing them from wage employment. Another way is to use the income transfer for the purchasing of consumer goods that reduce their labor.     

US food aid to South-east Asia, 1975–1983

According to food aid policy analysts, President Ford emphasized fiscal restraint, President Carter stressed ‘food for development’ and President Reagan used food as a ‘weapon’. However, a political bias has characterized food aid to South-east Asia, cutting across administrations. Public Law 480 supported American efforts in Indochina, boistered ‘friendly’ Indonesian and Phillippine regimes and helped secure geopolitical objectives. Humanitarian and developmental goals played the weakest role in shaping programmes. When conflict occurred, foreign policy aims overrode budgetary and commodity objectives.     

The food security challenge

The article first describes current market conditions and the nature of the food security challenge they present. Second, the article considers the kinds of food security measures which have been or could be taken with respect to improving LDC operations in commercial grain markets, using reserves to achieve supply and price stabilization objectives and making food aid a more effective instrument for food security.     

The food security challenge for southern Africa

This paper considers food security aims and instruments against a background of changed circumstances internationally and regionally. The international changes discussed are: a sharper focus on achieving macro-economic stabilization, which inter alia has led to closer scrutiny of what the public sector should be financing, and a decline in funding for agriculture; a reduced role for governments in commercial-type activities; the shift towards greater integration of world markets; and changing prospects for international aid flows. Regionally, southern Africa is moving away from a past of conflict and inward-looking economies, towards greater cooperation and trade, and less interventionist economic management.The commendable SADC food security strategy paper of June 1997 is considered, and its implications drawn out. The main messages are that (a) household food insecurity results from poverty, (b) national food insecurity results from faltering development and weak external trade performance, and (c) future strategies must therefore lie with greater efficiency in the use of resources and with patterns of development which are most effective in creating employment and incomes. Arguably there is therefore no case for a food security agenda that is separate from broad-based development aimed at poverty alleviation. This understanding of food security is at variance with some of the policies and development programmes in the region. Promotion of self-sufficiency in grains, specific food-security instruments, and controls over and interventions in markets may all be counter to improving food security for the region if they hinder policy and institutional reforms called for by the wider development agenda.The main roles for governments in promoting food security are discussed in terms of creating an enabling environment for development, correcting for market failures, and targeted measures to achieve social objectives. Food security needs both an urban and a rural focus, and involves all economic sectors. For rural areas, governments' roles may usefully be defined in terms of supporting household strategies aimed at raising and stabilizing incomes through livelihood diversification, intensification of farming, and migration.Two priority policy areas which are central to achieving food security objectives are discussed at some length: trade policy and the promotion of smallholder farming. The roles of government in these areas are discussed in the light of economic theory and past experiences in the region. A vision for a future trade regime is outlined, and strategic interventions by governments are identified. The challenge for governments in supporting smallholder farming is, first, to define with greater rigour than in the past the priority uses for public funds, and, second, to find much more efficient ways of delivering services than in the past. It will otherwise be difficult to make a case for reversing the decline in public funding for the sector.The paper ends with brief discussions of the roles for aid and for SADC in promoting food security, and with a question of whether a new initiative is needed to strengthen trade policy skills in the region.     

A ‘Common Food Policy’ for Europe: How governance reforms can spark a shift to healthy diets and sustainable food systems

More than half of adults in the European Union (EU) are now either overweight or obese (53%). Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), many of which are diet-related, account for 70% of mortality in Europe and a growing share of healthcare costs. While eating habits have an important role to play in NCD prevention, consumption patterns across the EU are diverging significantly from recommended diets. There is growing consensus on the solution: a series of coordinated and wide-ranging policy interventions to build healthy ‘food environments’.This article argues that EU governance structures remain ill-adapted to the systemic nature of this and other challenges in food systems (e.g. climate change, biodiversity loss, food poverty): conflicting objectives and missed synergies are identified between different policy areas (agriculture, trade, health, environment, etc.) and between different levels of governance (EU, national, local). An integrated food policy framework – a ‘Common Food Policy’ – is therefore required to meet the EU’s public health and sustainability objectives. It identifies four distinct aspects of the governance shift required to promote healthy diets and build sustainable food systems in Europe: (i) coherence across policy areas; (ii) coherence across governance levels; (iii) governance for transition; and (iv) food democracy. Blueprints for a Common Food Policy are already emerging, and are ripe for consideration, development, and implementation by the European institutions.     

Integrating climate change,food prices and population health

The inter-related nature of food, health and climate change requires a better understanding of the linkages and a greater alignment of policy across these issues to be able to adequately meet the pressing social and health challenges arising from climate change. Food price is one way through which climate change may affect health. The aim of this study of the global and Australian food systems is to provide a whole-of-system analysis of food price vulnerabilities, highlighting the key pressure points across the food system through which climate change could potentially have the greatest impact on consumer food prices and the implications for population health. We outline areas where there are particular vulnerabilities for food systems and food prices arising from climate change, particularly global commodity prices; agricultural productivity; short term supply shocks; and less direct factors such as input costs and government policies. We use Australia as a high-income country case study to consider these issues in more detail. The complex and dynamic nature of pricing mechanisms makes it difficult to predict precisely how prices will be impacted. Should prices rise disproportionately among healthy foodstuffs compared to less healthy foods there may be adverse health outcomes if less expensive and less healthy foods are substituted. Higher prices will also have equity implications with lower socio-economic groups most impacted given these households currently spend proportionately more of their weekly income on food. The ultimate objective of this research is to identify the pathways through the food system via which climate change may affect food prices and ultimately population health, thereby providing evidence for food policy which takes into account environmental and health considerations.     

The relationship between the planning and technical functions: Part 1—The short to medium term

In this paper the work of the technical function, along with that of the other functions is outlined in developing the Business Unit concept, put forward in the previous paper on Planning. It mainly covers the ongoing activities of the Business Unit and the work which can be seen as a natural evolution of its present activity. What it does not cover is the identification by both the Planning and Technical Functions of the longer term developments of a company or its Business Units, and also possibly the fields for still wider diversification. These will be dealt with in Part II. In many cases, however, a surprisingly high proportion of the Technical Function budget is spent on the natural extension of the present business and a means of analysis by business unit objectives is proposed so that other functions can participate in the setting of objectives and evaluating progress. Close identification with business unit objectives will be found helpful in eliminating waste and often identifying new problems for the Technical Function to pursue.     

Where are the best opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the food system (including the food chain)?

This paper reviews estimates of food related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at the global, regional and national levels, highlighting both GHG-intensive stages in the food chain, and GHG-intensive food types. It examines approaches that have been proposed for mitigating emissions at each stage in the chain and looks at how these sit within wider discussions of sustainability. It finds that efficiency-focused technological measures, while important, may not only be insufficient in reducing GHGs to the level required but may also give rise to other environmental and ethical concerns. It gives evidence showing that in addition to technological mitigation it will also be necessary to shift patterns of consumption, and in particular away from diets rich in GHG-intensive meat and dairy foods. This will be necessary not just in the developed but also, in the longer term, in the developing world. This move, while potentially beneficial for food secure, wealthier populations, raises potentially serious nutritional questions for the world’s poorest. A priority for decision makers is to develop policies that explicitly seek to integrate agricultural, environmental and nutritional objectives.     

Project selection by scoring for a large R&D organisation in a developing country

A project selection method has been derived for the R&D Division of an electrical equipment manufacturer in a developing country. In the method, a scoring model is used to select and rank projects which have a wide range of objectives and characteristics. The criteria used for selection relate specifically to the organisation's needs and culture, and they are weighted according to their relative importance as perceived by executives. The results of the study indicate the research culture of the R&D Division and reflect its environment. As such the paper illustrates a methodology which can be universally applied to large R&D organisations in developing or developed countries.     

Review: Food loss and waste in Sub-Saharan Africa

The research, development practitioner, and donor community has begun to focus on food loss and waste – often referred to as post-harvest losses (PHL) – in Sub-Saharan Africa. This article reviews the current state of the literature on PHL mitigation. First, we identify explicitly the varied objectives underlying efforts to reduce PHL levels. Second, we summarize the estimated magnitudes of losses, evaluate the methodologies used to generate those estimates, and explore the dearth of thoughtful assessment around “optimal” PHL levels. Third, we synthesize and critique the impact evaluation literature around on-farm and off-farm interventions expected to deliver PHL reduction. Fourth, we suggest a suite of other approaches to advancing these same objectives, some of which may prove more cost-effective. Finally, we conclude with a summary of main points.     

The domestic determinants of US food aid policy

This study presents empirical analysis of US food aid flows as evidence of the strong and stable relationship between commodity producer interests and policy-makers during a 35 yr period. Whereas most foreign aid research centers on the distribution of aid among recipient countries, this study focuses on the determinants of the supply of food aid made available by the donor country. I conduct time series regression analysis of total US food aid shipments, as well as separate analyses of two key commodities, wheat and rice. Several key findings emerge: (1) There is a consistent relationship between commodity producer interests and US food aid policy. (2) There is a strong relationship between commodity stocks and food aid shipments, especially during the years when stocks were the greatest. (3) US food aid policy-making is highly incremental. These findings, taken together with the lack of a strong relationship between grain production in poor countries and US food aid shipments, belie official rhetoric emphasizing the growing humanitarian objectives of the program over time. In the case of rice, I find a strong relationship between aid flows and US involvement in the Vietnam War.     

AIDS and food production in East and Central Africa: a research outline

AIDS has penetrated at least 42 countries in Africa. Death of Africans usually occurs within 3 years of diagnosis. Not much is currently known about the demographics of the disease or about its impact on economic and social behavior, farming, and food production. There is currently a food crisis in Africa, so it is appropriate to study how much of an impact this disease has on future food production. In order to study the problem, one must predict the spread of AIDS. 2nd, one must infer how labor loss effects current rural production. Labor loss will cause changes in organization of production, technology, and types of crops grown. As a crisis increases, certain groups will be cut out of the food distribution. Characterizations such as these allow the mapping of areas vulnerable to labor loss. Field analysis and modeling must substantiate the theories and predictions. This paper describes the research design which will be used by 2 researchers from the Overseas Development Group of the University of East Anglia to measure the impact of AIDS on food production, working initially in a high HIV - prevalent area in Uganda.     

Towards regional food security in southern Africa: a (new) policy framework for the agricultural sector

In the southern African Region (SAR) large populations, mainly concentrated in rural areas, face food insecurity and poverty. Food insecurity is intensified by adverse weather conditions and droughts which impact negatively on farm level food production throughout the region. Agriculture constitutes an important economic sector in the majority of countries in the region. This is measured as share of agricultural value added to the GDP and as agriculture's share in employment. Based on these facts alone, it must be obvious that sustained agricultural performance will play a significant role in the improvement of food security and livelihoods in the region. However, food security is not only attained in rural areas and by the consumption of home produced food stuffs. Urbanisation is expected to increase dramatically over the next few decades and feeding the urban masses, at affordable prices, must be considered to be a high future priority for governments in the region. Food security must not be viewed as an agricultural issue per se. The drive to food self sufficiency through domestic agriculture production in many countries in the region did not enable these countries to feed their own population. Food security should rather be defined as the acquirement of sufficient and nutritious quantities of food (Sen, 1981, Poverty and Famines: An essay on Entitlement and Deprivation). An approach, whereby attention is given to the macro level availability of food, access to income streams as well as improved production capacity to acquire food at a household level and the utilisation of nutritious food, should therefore be guiding food security policies (SADC: FSTAU, 1997, A Strategic Framework for Food Security in the Region). This broader view emphasises household level poverty reduction, economic development and growth as important components of a food security strategy (World Food Summit, Rome, 1996). An important issue which therefore needs to be explored is whether agriculture does have the potential to contribute to economic processes, which will support broad based development and food security. This paper is intended to argue the importance of agricultural development for food security in the region and to develop a diverse policy framework to strengthen this new, more comprehensive role of agriculture in the region.     

Food sharing,redistribution, and waste reduction via mobile applications: A social network analysis

Food sharing mobile applications are becoming increasingly popular, but little is known about the new social configurations of people using them, particularly those applications that use consumers as voluntary intermediaries in supply chains. This article presents a social network analysis of a food sharing mobile application conducted in partnership with OLIO. The study focuses on longitudinal social network data from 54,913 instances of food sharing between 9054 people and was collected over 10 months. The results challenge existing theories of food sharing (reciprocity, kin selection, tolerated scrounging, and costly signalling) as inadequate by showing that donor-recipient reciprocity and balance are rare, but also show that genuinely novel social relations have formed between organisations and consumers which depart from traditional linear supply chains. The findings have significant implications for managers and policymakers aiming to encourage, measure and understand technology-assisted food sharing practices.