World food in the 1990s : production, trade, and aid

The workshop sought to determine how future assistance programs could best help developing countries improve the productivity of their agriculture and alleviate their hunger and poverty. The workshop covered the following themes: (1) the international economic and policy environments anticipated for the 1990"s and the likely organization and operation of world food markets in relation to the food security of developing countries; (2) the impacts that multilateral liberalization of agricultural trade and domestic policy reforms in both industrial and developing countries may have on world food production, trade, and food security; and (3) how U.S. foreign assistance, including food aid, should be adapted to increase food production and food security. This final section assesses past U.S. efforts to boost food security, reviews the use of food aid as a development resource, and suggests realistic possibilities for policy changes in the context of the 1990 Farm Bill, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the Food Aid Convention, and other national and international accords. The workshop affirmed the continued need for strong development assistance from the United States and other industrial countries. It pointed to the need for expansion of international scientific agricultural research, oriented to the needs of poorer nations, as a priority of that assistance. It also emphasized the food crisis in sub-Saharan Africa with its increasing hunger and malnutrition, marked by a steady decline in per capita food production.