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Food Insecurity and Foreign-Exchange Constraints in Sub-Saharan Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Colin Kirkpatrick  and
Dimitris Diakosavvas
Colin Kirkpatrick
Affiliation:
Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics, University of Manchester, and currently Visiting Fellow, Department of Economics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra
Dimitris Diakosavvas
Affiliation:
Economic Consultant, Food and Agriculture Organisation, Rome. Their study draws on work undertaken in collaboration with Chris Green.
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Extract

The problem of food insecurity in less-developed countries (L.D.C.s) continues to demand the attention of the international community. Despite the progress that has been made in increasing the world's production of cereals and other major foodstuffs, many L.D.C.s continue to face immense difficulties in ensuring an adequate level of food supplies on a regular year-to-year basis. The current African food crisis has once again demonstrated the vulnerability of low-income economies to a sudden shortfall in supplies, and has highlighted the need for additional measures to strengthen food security in the Third World.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , June 1985 , pp. 239 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

1 Knudsen, O. K. and Scandizzo, P. L., ‘Nutrition and Food Needs in Developing Countries’, World Bank Staff Working Paper No. 328, Washington, D.C., 1979.Google Scholar

2 Mellor, J. W. and Johnston, B. F., ‘The World Food Equation: interrelations among development, employment and food consumption’, in Journal of Economic Literature (Nashville), XXII, 06 1984, pp. 531–74.Google Scholar

1 Green, Chris and Kirkpatrick, Cohn H., ‘A Cross-Section Analysis of Food Insecurity in Developing Countries: its magnitude and sources’, in Journal of Development Studies (London), 18, 2, 01 1982, pp. 181–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

1 The consideration that food insecurity is, in part, related to imperfections in world capital markets suggests the relevance of intervention by international lending agencies. On this point, see Green, Christopher, ‘Insulating Countries Against Fluctuations in Domestic Production and Exports: an analysis of compensatory financing schemes’, in Journal of Development Economics (Amsterdam), 21, 1983, pp. 302–25.Google Scholar

2 Hazell, Peter, ‘Sources of Increased Variability in World Cereal Production since the 1960s’, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, D.C., 1984, Table 2.Google Scholar

3 Blandford, David, ‘Instability in World Grain Markets’, in Journal of Agricultural Economics (Manchester), XXXIV, 3, 1983, pp. 379–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 A recent review of the national situation in L.D.C.s found that ‘stocks currently held by most developing countries will not suffice to protect them against prolonged periods of declining availabilities and resulting price increases. In some of these countries the margin of security – if in fact there is one – is barely a few weeks’. International Wheat Council, National Stockholding Policies (London, 1983), Secretariat Paper No. 13, p. 21.Google Scholar

2 Huddleston, Barbara, ‘Responsiveness of Food Aid to Variable Import Requirements’, in Valdes, A. (ed.), Food Security for Developing Countries (Boulder, 1981).Google Scholar

1 When production rises above the trend it is likely to be used to increase consumption levels and/or stock holdings. The relationship between food imports and production is again likely to be weak.

1 An identical procedure is used by Blandford, loc. cit.

1 Morrison, T. K., ‘Cereal Imports by Developing Countries’, in Food Policy (Guildford), 9, I, 02 1984, pp. 13–26.Google Scholar

2 Blandford, loc. cit.

3 The trend value of consumption was defined in terms of a permanent income consumption function. A detailed description of the procedure used is given by Dimitris Diakosavvas, ‘The Measurement of Commodity Market Instability with Particular Reference to Food Consumption Instability’, Manchester University Discussion Papers in Development Studies No. 8302, 1983.

1 For more details, see Kirkpatrick, Colin, ‘Improving Food Security in Developing Countries: a role for the IMF’, in Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review (Rome), forthcoming.Google Scholar