Food prices and food policy analysis in LDCs

Food Policy ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 188-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.Peter Timmer
Keyword(s):  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Food Prices

On national food policy analysis using agrimod

1976 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Levis ◽  
Elizabeth Ducot ◽  
Donald Stengel
Keyword(s):  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Food Policy

scholarly journals Seasonal price variability and the effective demand for nutrients: Evidence from cereals markets in Mali

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (58) ◽  
pp. 7640-7661
Author(s):  
OM Camara ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Vitamin A ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Seasonal Pattern ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Effective Demand ◽  
Price Variation ◽  
Staple Foods ◽  
Income And Price Elasticities

A key outcome of the food policy reforms initiated in the 1980s in Mali was the liberalization of the cereals markets in order to stimulate agricultural production and reduce reliance on imported rice. These market reforms resulted in more variable food prices because grain prices were no longer fixed by the government but rather influenced by the seasonal pattern of production and availability, regional and international supply and demand conditions. Malian policy makers have often expressed their concerns about seasonal grain price variation in Mali. However, measurements of its immediate effects on households' effective demand for nutrients have been relatively scarce. This study uses panel data from a 2000-2001 household consumption survey undertaken in Bamako to estimate nutrient-income and price elasticities by season and for the entire year and examine the effects of intra-year price variation on nutrient demand. The study finds that real income has a statistically significant positive impact on the demand for calories, protein, calcium, vitamin A, and iron and that the income elasticities for calories (from 0.102 to 0.193) varies less across seasons than those for micronutrients (for example vitamin A from 0.492 to 0.725). During the lean season, a 10 percent increase in real incomes will improve calorie availability from staples and other foods by 1.36 and 3.36 percent, respectively. The pooled data results show that a 10 percent growth in real incomes will increase the demand for calories (+1.62 %), protein (+1.91%), calcium (+1.98%), vitamin A (+7.21%) and iron (+1.29%). The findings of this study have several implications for food policy design in Mali, and possibly for other Sahelian countries. The most striking result is that in the face of seasonal variations in the price of staples, Bamako households attempt to “defend” their calorie consumption by reducing the consumption of higher-cost but more nutrient -rich foods. Thus, the price fluctuations of staples can significantly affect the consumption of protein and micronutrients that the staples themselves do not contain. Measures to bring about more stability of the staple-food markets (regional trade policies, better infrastructure) would thus have impacts on nutrition and on the demands for other more nutrient-rich products well beyond the staple-foods. In other words, if you are interested in Vitamin A or iron consumption, the path to affect those most may be through the staple foods market, even though most Malian staples are not rich in those micronutrients.

scholarly journals Estimating Consumption Parameters for Food Policy Analysis

1979 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 982-987 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Peter Timmer ◽  
Harold Alderman
Keyword(s):  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Food Policy

scholarly journals Urban food markets and the COVID-19 lockdown in India

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudha Narayanan ◽  
Shree Saha
Keyword(s):  
Food Policy ◽  
Edible Oils ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Food Markets ◽  
Price Increases ◽  
Doing Business ◽  
Food Retailers ◽  
Retail Prices ◽  
The Government ◽  
Indian Cities

On March 24, 2020, the Government of India announced a 21-day national lockdown that has since been extended to May 31, 2020. The lockdown left urban food markets in disarray with severe supply bottlenecks and restrictions on doing business. At a time when food prices in India were declining consistently, supply disruptions consequent to the lockdown have reversed the trend on average. Based on an analysis of publicly available data on wholesale and retail prices for 22 commodities from 114 Centers, we find that prices have increased since the lockdown, as of August 1, 2020. There is significant diversity across commodities and geographies that mask aggregate figures. Average price increases were to the tune of over 6% for several pulses, over 3.5% for most edible oils, 15% for potato 28% for tomato in the four weeks post-lockdown compared to prices during the four weeks preceding the lockdown. Price of meat and fish too have registered large increases. Price wedge between retail and wholesale prices increased as did spatial dispersion, both signifying friction in supply chains. We find that smaller cities have seen a much higher increase in prices with some seeing a rise in retail food prices by as much as 20%. Three rounds of surveys, conducted between April and July, of food retailers in 14 Indian cities reveal serious operational challenges. These include, among others, transport and labor shortages, police harassment and social discrimination. At the same time, several innovative arrangements and adaptations have evolved as well suggesting resilience. The paper reviews these aspects and outlines some lessons for food policy in emerging economies.

scholarly journals Relative contributions of recommended food environment policies to improve population nutrition: results from a Delphi study with international food policy experts

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 2142-2148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rewena Mahesh ◽  
Stefanie Vandevijvere ◽  
Clare Dominick ◽  
Boyd Swinburn
Keyword(s):  
Delphi Study ◽  
Food Environment ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Healthy Food ◽  
Healthy Foods ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy Process Method ◽  
Expert Ratings

AbstractObjectiveTo determine weightings for the relative contributions of nineteen widely recommended good practice food environment policies to improve population nutrition, based on evidence of effectiveness and expert ratings, to facilitate benchmarking of the implementation of food environment policies globally.DesignA two-round Delphi study was performed in 2015, whereby international food policy experts (nRound127,nRound221) compared effectiveness of all possible pairs of policy domains and good practice policies within domains to improve population nutrition according to the Saaty scale (1 to 9). Weightings for each domain and policy were derived from expert ratings based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process method.SettingInternational.SubjectsFood policy experts.ResultsOut of the seven policy domains, Food Prices and Food Promotion received the highest weightings for impact on improving population nutrition, while Food Trade received the lowest weighting. Among the nineteen specific policies, taxing unhealthy foods (3·8 (0·7)), healthy food provision in schools (2·8 (0·4)) and minimizing taxes on healthy foods (2·6 (0·4)) were given the highest weightings, while nutrient declarations on packaged foods (1·2 (0·2)) and healthy food policies in private-sector workplaces (1·0 (0·2)) received the lowest weightings (mean (95 % CI)).ConclusionsExpert-derived weightings on the relative contributions of recommended food environment policies to improve population nutrition will facilitate monitoring and benchmarking the implementation of these policies by governments among countries globally. Additional weightings for contributions of policies to reducing nutrition inequalities and improving consumer and child rights could be developed in the future.

Diets, Nutrition, and Poverty

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raghav Gaiha ◽  
Raghbendra Jha ◽  
Vani S. Kulkarni ◽  
Nidhi Kaicker
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Food Distribution ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
Child Undernutrition ◽  
Life Style Changes ◽  
Normative Issues

This chapter addresses a persistent tension in current debates over food security, with illustrative data from India. The case allows us to disaggregate concepts in food policy that are often lumped together, so as to better understand what is at stake in rapidly changing economies more generally. Despite rising incomes, there has been sustained decline in per capita nutrient intake in India in recent years. The assertion by Deaton and Dreze (2009) that poverty and undernutrition are unrelated is critically examined. A demand-based model in which food prices and expenditure played significant roles proved robust, while allowing for lower calorie “requirements” due to less strenuous activity patterns, life-style changes, and improvements in the epidemiological environment. This analysis provides reasons for not delinking nutrition and poverty; it confirms the existence of poverty-nutrition traps in which undernutrition perpetuates poverty. A new measure of child undernutrition that allows for multiple anthropometric failures (e.g., wasting, underweight, and stunting) points to much higher levels of undernutrition than conventional ones. Dietary changes over time, and their nutritional implications, have welfare implications at both ends of the income and social-status pyramids. Since poverty is multidimensional, money-metric indicators such as minimum income or expenditure are not reliable, because these cannot adequately capture all the dimensions. The emergent shift of the disease burden toward predominately food-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) poses an additional challenge. Finally, the complexity of normative issues in food policy is explored. Current approaches to food security have veered toward a “right-to-food” approach. There are, however, considerable problems with creating appropriate mechanisms for effectuating that right; these are explored briefly. Cash transfers touted to avoid administrative costs and corruption involved in rural employment guarantee and targeted food-distribution programs are likely to be much less effective if the objective is to enable large segments of the rural population to break out of nutrition-poverty traps. The chapter ends by exploring an alternative model, based on the same normative principle: a “right to policies,” or a “right to a right.”

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