Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis article outlines a food security synthesis: that food insecurity traces to poverty, that poverty must be addressed by economic development, and that economic development flows from application of the standard model that is now mainstream economics. Food‐insecure countries do not follow the standard model; their policies for agriculture and other sectors deter development. Reasons lie in institutions such as government and in attitudes. The economics of food security is straightforward. The challenge of food security for our time is for economists to work with others regarding socioinstitutional changes essential for proven policies and practices to supply adequate diets.

The authors describe how Pakistan has grappled with land
reform, surely one of the most intractable and divisive issues facing
agriculture anywhere. The land-tenure system at independence in 1947
included a high degree of land ownership concentration, absentee
landlordism, insecurity of tenant tenure, and excessive rent. Land
reform since 1947 focused on imposition of ceilings on landholding,
distribution of land to landless tenants and small owners, and
readjustments of contracts to improve the position of the tenant. These
reformist measures have removed some but by no means all of the
undesirable characteristics of the system. The authors list as well as
present a critique of the reports of five official committees and
commissions on land reform. The reports highlight the conflicts and
ideologies of the reformers. The predominant ideal of the land reformers
is a system of peasant proprietorship although some reformers favoured
other systems such as communal farming and state ownership of land, and
still others favoured cash rents over share rents. More pragmatic
reformers recognized that tenancy is likely to be with Pakistan for the
foreseeable future and that the batai (sharecropping) arrangement is the
most workable system. According to the editors, the batai system can
work to the advantage of landlord and tenant if the ceilings on
landholding can be sufficiently lowered (and enforced), the security of
the tenant is ensured, and the tenant has recourse to the courts for
adjudication of disputes with landlords. Many policy-makers in Pakistan
have come to accept that position but intervention by the State to
realize the ideal has been slow. The editors conclude that" ... the end
result of these land reforms is that they have not succeeded in
significantly changing the status quo in rural Pakistan" (p.
29).

It is fashionable in some intellectual circles to deride the
trickle-down theory, technological change, and the Green Revolution as
tools of the haves to exploit the have-nots. In a worthwhile book,
drawing especially on extensive data for India, several distinguished
analysts from various countries examined sources of rural poverty with
special attention to the role of technological progress and the
trickledown theory.

It is the best of times. Per capita food production in 1977 was near record levels in both developed and developing countries. World production of grains in 1977 was 9 per cent over 1974 production. World production in 1978 is forecast by the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service to be up 4 per cent over 1977, despite controls that reduced U.S. wheat production by 10 per cent. The foreign grain crop in 1978 is expected to establish a new record. The result is an anticipated 5 per cent boost in grain stocks carried into 1979. World grain stocks are expected to total 192 million metric tons by the beginning of crop year 1979 and constitute 14 per cent of utilization, compared to 11 per cent in 1975. Expected stocks will be near levels deemed adequate by U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization standards and more than adequate if based on an analysis by D. Gale Johnson of the University of Chicago and by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

This book was written to make modem policy analysis methods accessible to policy analysts. It can improve policy decisions by combining the best analytical methods with the power of analysts' and decisionmakers' good judgment and with microcomputer hardware and software.

While terrorism in agriculture takes few lives, the misinformation emerging from the rhetoric of anti-globalists, radical environmentalists, and animal welfare extremists costs Americans billions of dollars in lost income every year. This controversial volume illuminates the political, economic, and global effects of these groups on the agricultural industry. The clear, concise, and readable book discusses specific events and issues, helping readers understand how radical agriculturalists think. Tweeten explains how half truths and false ideologies find their way into our political systems an