This paper reviews key issues in the 'cash versus food' debate, including as they relate to political economy, theory, evidence, and practice.
... Voir la suite In doing so, it benefited from a new generation of 12 impact evaluations deliberately comparing alternative transfer modalities. Findings show that differences in effectiveness vary by indicator, although they tend to be moderate on average. In some cases differences are more marked (i.e., food consumption and calorie availability), but in most instances they are not statistically significant. In general, transfers' performance and their difference seem a function of the organic and fluid interactions among factors like the profile and 'initial conditions' of beneficiaries, the capacity of local markets, and program objectives and design. Costs associated with cash transfers and vouchers tend to be substantially lower relative to food. Yet methods for cost-effectiveness analysis vary and need to be more standardized and nuanced. The reviewed evaluations are helping to shift the debate from one shaped by ideology, political economy and 'inference' of evidence to one centering on robust and context-specific results.
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Document de travail (série numérotée) 89502 JUL 01, 2014
Private sugar processors in Andhra Pradesh, India use an unusual form of vertical coordination. They issue 'permits' to selected cane growers a few weeks before harvest.
... Voir la suite These permits specify the amount of cane to be delivered during a narrow time period. This article investigates why processors create uncertainty among farmers using ex post permits instead of ex ante production contracts. The theoretical model predicts that ex post permits are more profitable than ex ante contracts or the spot market under existing government regulations in the sugar sector, which include a binding price floor for cane and the designation of a reserve area for each processor wherein it has a legal monopsony for cane. The use of ex post permits creates competition among farmers to increase cane quality, which increases processor profits and farmer costs. Empirical analysis supports the hypothesis that farmers operating in private factory areas have higher unit production costs than do their counterparts who patronize cooperatives.
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Document de travail de recherche sur les politiques WPS6975 JUL 01, 2014
Patlolla, Sandhyarani; Goodhue, Rachael E.; Sexton, Richard J.
This study seeks to examine how National Rural Livelihoods Mission or NRLM may be leveraged to improve food and nutrition security (FNS) in tribal areas, preferably in a manner that would enhance the effectiveness of the program's core livelihoods focus.
... Voir la suite More broadly, the objective is to strengthen the capacity of the Government of India (GoI) to deliver (or support) effective FNS interventions in tribal and backward areas (TABAs). As such, the study aims to do the following: develop the evidence base on those constraints which STs face with regard to achieving food security and favorable nutritional outcomes; examine approaches which have been used to address issues of poor nutrition elsewhere in India or abroad to identify interventions that could be effective in tribal areas; and Recommend models for improving FNS in tribal areas within the context of NRLM. The primary focus of this work is operationally oriented toward identifying entry points for NRLM to address tribal malnutrition as it expands into states with larger tribal communities, particularly Jharkhand and Odisha.
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This paper revisits the extent of seasonality in African livelihoods, which has disappeared from Africa's development debate. Through econometric analysis of monthly food price series across 100 locations in three countries during 2000-12, it is shown that seasonal movements in maize wholesale prices explain 20 (Tanzania, Uganda) to 40 (Malawi) percent of their monthly volatility.
... Voir la suite Monthly maize peak prices are on average 30 (Tanzania, Uganda) to 50 (Malawi) percent higher than their monthly troughs and two to three times higher than the seasonal gaps observed for white maize at the South African Futures Exchange. Furthermore, household food consumption is found to inversely track food prices in each country, decreasing when staple prices increase and increasing when they decline. Clearly, (excess) seasonality in African food markets and consumption persists, necessitating policy attention.
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Document de travail de recherche sur les politiques WPS6907 JUN 01, 2014
Kaminski, Jonathan; Christiaensen, Luc; Gilbert, Christopher L.
This paper uses resource-based cereal equivalent measures to explore the evolution of China's demand and supply for food. Although demand for food calories is probably close to its peak level in China, the ongoing dietary shift to animal-based foods, induced by income growth, is likely to impose considerable pressure on agricultural resources.
... Voir la suite Estimating the relationship between income growth and food demand with data from a wide range of countries, China's demand growth appears to have been broadly similar to the global trend. On the supply side, output of food depends strongly on the productivity growth associated with income growth and on the country's agricultural land endowment, with China appearing to be an out-performer. The analyses of income-consumption-production dynamics suggest that China's current income level falls in the range where consumption growth outstrips production growth, but that the gap is likely to begin to decline as China's population growth and dietary transition slow down. Continued agricultural productivity growth through further investment in research and development, and expansion in farm size and increased mechanization, as well as sustainable management of agricultural resources, are vital for ensuring that it is primarily China that will feed China in the 21st century.
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Document de travail de recherche sur les politiques WPS6926 JUN 01, 2014
The purpose of this paper is to provide forward-looking recommendations for linking agriculture and nutrition by looking back over the 40 years since both nutrition and rural development began at the Bank in 1973.
... Voir la suite This paper sets out to explore whether what is currently being suggested has been attempted in the past; in what circumstances, with what sort of support or commitment, by what actors, and with what results. Throughout, the World Bank is a case study set within the larger development aid architecture due to its role as one of the largest actors in agriculture and nutrition investments in developing countries around the nutrition initially was housed in the Population department (1972-75), and then moved to Agriculture and Rural Development (1975-79). Since 1979 it has been housed with health and other human development world. The initial motivation was to showcase the depth of historical resources available in the World Bank Group Archives, and to demonstrate how they can be used to inform current practice. Several lessons learned primarily from the World Bank experience are applicable to the Bank's current commitment to nutrition-sensitive agriculture, as well as to the development community at large, that is tackling the same agenda.
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Document de travail (série numérotée) 88740 JUN 01, 2014
India has been successful in developing agriculture in its fertile northern belt, resulting in an abundance of grain. Unfortunately, its ability to store it has lagged behind.
... Voir la suite Today, India has neither the capacity nor facilities to store grain safely, leading to excessive losses through exposure, deterioration and pests. Poor inventory management has only added to the problem. In response, the Government of Punjab, India's leading agricultural state, turned to International Finance Corporation (IFC) to structure a pilot public-private partnership to address this issue. The resulting concession the first of its kind in India at the state level was awarded in May 2010.
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Processing sugar from beets consumes large quantities of natural gas and water. High resource intensity elevates environmental risks through increased carbon emissions and ground water pollution.
... Voir la suite Being committed to excellence across the farming value chain, T-Sugar established a strategic partnership with International Finance Corporation (IFC) to identify resource efficiency gaps in its sugar production division, and to design solutions to address them. Its six processing plants, located in the western part of the country, used 1.4 million tons of sugar beets to produce 161,000 tons of sugar in 2012. The work was undertaken in two stages. The first was to compare the company's operations with global best practices; the second was to identify specific measures to drive improved operational efficiency. IFC's investment department has supported T-sugar through the cleaner production lending facility, an IFC financial instrument that finances resource efficiency projects.
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This issue of the Food Price Watch newsletter includes the following topics of interest: price trends, domestic price trends, and food prices and food riots.
... Voir la suite Findings indicated that the International prices of food increased by 4% during January and April 2014, putting an end to the declining trend of food prices sustained since August 2012. Prices of wheat and maize sharply increased during that period due to growing weather concerns and mounting import demand. Despite favorable prospects for cereals supplies, several uncertainties hang over the near future, some exerting upward pressures on prices, such as weather in the United States and, more globally, El Niño, and a hypothetical escalation of geopolitical tensions in Ukraine and others exerting downward pressures on export prices, such as the releases of public stockpiles of rice in Thailand. Domestic prices of food generally stabilized across regions, marked by seasonal trends and availabilities from previous harvests. In some places, conflicts, public procurement policies, and transport costs had important effects on domestic prices.
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Ratings for the Emergency Food Security Response Project for Guinea-Bissau were as follows: outcomes were satisfactory, risk to development outcome was high, Bank performance was satisfactory, and Borrower performance was satisfactory.
... Voir la suite Some lessons learned included: country ownership ensures achievement of development objectives, particularly in fragile countries where government leadership is lacking. The involvement of national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in providing technical assistance and on the-job training to producer groups increases the likelihood of continued capacity building and guarantees that new development management skills stay in the communities that need those most. Capacity constraints in fragile countries are persistent; they often negatively affect results and must be properly mitigated during design - not just implementation. The new global food crisis response program (GFRP) project, currently being formulated, has taken under advisement the lessons related to persistent weak capacity and will rely heavily on world food program (WFP) for implementation, monitoring and evaluation (M and E), and fiduciary management. A minimum set of project readiness conditions, coupled with intense implementation support, is necessary for emergency operations to succeed.
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Bilan de fin d’exécution et de résultats ICR3030 APR 28, 2014
The unanticipated spike in international food prices in 2007-08 hit many developing countries hard. The World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and International Development Association) organized rapidly for short-term support in the crisis, launching a fast-track program of loans and grants, the Global Food Crisis Response Program (GFRP).
... Voir la suite The GFRP targeted 35 low-income countries, with Sub-Saharan Africa accounting for about 60 percent of funding. The majority of support went to four countries-Bangladesh, Ethiopia, the Philippines, and Tanzania. The Bank also scaled up lending for agriculture and social protection to support the building of medium-term resilience to future food price shocks. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) responded by sharply increasing access to liquidity for agribusinesses and agricultural traders in the short and medium term, as well as new programs to improve incentives for agricultural market participants. This evaluation assesses the effectiveness of the World Bank Group. The findings support four recommendations. First, ensure that country-driven food crisis response programs are suffi ciently resourced with administrative budgets. Second, develop quality assurance procedures for food crisis response programs that mitigate the potential adverse effects of speedy preparation and implementation. Third, assist countries to better target the people most vulnerable to a food price crisis (especially children under two and pregnant and breastfeeding women) with appropriate nutrition interventions in their mitigation programs. Fourth, work with client countries and development partners to identify practical mechanisms (including indicators) for monitoring nutritional and welfare outcomes and impacts of food crises and mitigation programs, and work with them to implement those mechanisms and to report the results.
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Food and nutrition security has emerged as a primary development goal at the top of the global agenda. In 2012 the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) methodology was integrated into a userfriendly software named ADePT-Food Security Module (ADePT-FSM).
... Voir la suite This book aims to provide the essential guidelines of the use of ADePT-FSM and of its background methodology. It is organized into five chapters: chapter 1 introduces the background concepts of food security and food consumption data; chapter 2 describes the methodology used to derive different food security indicators; chapter 3 discusses the analysis of the derived food security statistics; chapter 4 provides guidelines on how to prepare the input datasets; and chapter 5 explains how to install and use ADePT-FSM. Over the past years, increasing attention has been paid to national household surveys by the international community in order to collect reliable and timely information on food consumption for the purpose of food security assessment. National household surveys are in fact the only available source of information to assess the distribution of food consumption within a country. ADePT-FSM aims to derive consistent and readily available food security statistics from food consumption data collected in national househoudl surveys.
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This is a statement by Mr. Kanayo Nwanze, President at the eighty-ninth meeting of the Development Committee held on April 12, 2014. In recent years, the best rates of economic growth have been in developing countries.
... Voir la suite Africa has been a particularly bright spot, with six of the ten fastest growing economies in the world. The continent also has the world's fastest growing population and the highest growth rate of urbanization, along with a rapidly expanding middle class. These signs of global recovery are welcome, but for many developing countries, the situation remains precarious. Export markets that had helped many developing countries post solid growth in recent years may prove less robust in years ahead. Internal structural problems may prove a further impediment to future growth. The growing inequality among and within countries points to the increasingly urgent need to address not only the rate but also the quality of economic growth. Tackling this inequality - both within developing countries and between developing and advanced economies must be a priority for everyone working to reduce global poverty and hunger.
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Some of the headings included in this issue of the Development Economics Prospects Group (DECPG) daily economics and financial market commentary newsletter are as follows: financial markets; high-income economies; and developing economies in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
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Some of the headings included in this issue of the Development Economics Prospects Group (DECPG) daily economics and financial market commentary newsletter are as follows: financial markets; high-income economies; and developing economies in East Asia and Pacific.
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The 2007-2008 global food crisis has renewed interest in post-harvest loss, but estimates remain scarce, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper uses self-reported measures from nationally representative household surveys in Malawi, Uganda, and Tanzania.
... Voir la suite Overall, on-farm post-harvest loss adds to 1.4-5.9 percent of the national maize harvest, substantially lower than the Food and Agriculture Organization's post-harvest handling and storage loss estimate for cereals, which is 8 percent. Post-harvest loss is concentrated among less than a fifth of households. It increases with humidity and temperature and declines with better market access, post-primary education, higher seasonal price differences, and possibly improved storage practices. Wider use of nationally representative surveys in studying post-harvest loss is called for.
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Document de travail de recherche sur les politiques WPS6831 APR 01, 2014
This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the degree of co-movement among the nominal price returns of 11 major energy, agricultural and food commodities based on monthly data between 1970 and 2013.
... Voir la suite A uniform-spacings testing approach, a multivariate dynamic conditional correlation model and a rolling regression procedure are used to study the extent and the time-evolution of unconditional and conditional correlations. The results indicate that (i) the price returns of energy and agricultural commodities are highly correlated; (ii) the overall level of co-movement among commodities increased in recent years, especially between energy and agricultural commodities and in particular in the cases of maize and soybean oil, which are important inputs in the production of biofuels; and (iii) particularly after 2007, stock market volatility is positively associated with the co-movement of price returns across markets.
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Document de travail de recherche sur les politiques WPS6845 APR 01, 2014
de Nicola, Francesca; De Pace, Pierangelo; Hernandez, Manuel A.
The key commodity price indices were broadly stable during 2014. Energy prices changed little, only 0.4 higher than 2013; agricultural prices increased 1.8 percent on weather-related concerns and metal prices declined 3.2 percent on Chinese demand weakness.
... Voir la suite Agricultural prices are projected to ease in 2014 under the assumption that current crop conditions will persist for the next crop year. A weather-induced increase in maize and wheat prices in late February and March 2014 was partly offset by declines in rice prices. The report includes detailed market analysis for most primary commodities, including energy, metals, agriculture, precious metals, and fertilizers. It also includes historical and recent price data as well as price forecasts going up to 2025.
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