Protecting the Poor in the Transition

Abstract

It has been argued that the ultimate resolution of the fundamental dilemma with which we started must be found in productivity growth, and that higher producer prices have an important role to play, in conjunction with the right technological package. Higher yields, higher profits, and higher incomes to farmers and farm-workers can then be combined with greater output and lower prices of food. (For any one country the benefits of productivity growth can be passed on to foreign consumers in the form of lower prices. But the proposition remains true for the world as a whole.) This process takes time, and until its benefits are evident, the poor buyers of food may starve.

A good discussion of some of the problems discussed in this section can be found in Poverty and Hunger: Issues and Options for Food Security in Developing Countries, a World Bank Policy Study, 1986.