Towards the Emergence of Constitutive Rules for Equitable Agribusiness Value Chains

Replaced with revised version of paper 10/18/07.Agribusiness,

Reconciling Actors' Preferences in Agricultural Policy - Towards a New Management of Public Decisions

To attain sustainable development in the 21st century, the world's population still has to overcome many challenges; hunger, poverty, environmental degradation and depletion. Policy design in such a context is and will remain a complex task. On one hand, policy makers often lack information on stakeholders' strategies and constraints as well as on potential options for improvement. On the other hand, stakeholders do not always adhere to policies for lack of understanding of the pursued goals. It is not unusual to observe that often, real policy effects are not those initially expected. Furthermore, existing decision-making mechanisms for public intervention are increasingly questioned due to pressure for market liberalization, decentralization processes and the increasing role of the civil society. However, while the classical role of government is challenged, few methods have been proposed to enable the design of viable alternatives. The approach presented in this book is a contribution to the improvement of efficiency in public decision-making. Based on practical experience from Viet Nam, Indonesia and other countries, it proposes new methods for the identification of policy objective, stakeholders and issues at stake, and for the definition and implementation of concrete actions. It also provides means and guidance to foster progressive actors' participation and involvement in decision-making and policy implementation processes. Key Words: analytical methods, tools, decision making, agricultural policiesanalytical methods, tools, decision making, agricultural policies, Agricultural and Food Policy,

About “Transforming the future: Anticipation in the 21st century,” edited by Riel Miller

International audienc

Food Insecurity: The Future Challenge

At a time where the amount of food produced worldwide is sufficient to feed all, the number of food-insecure people remains high. This article presents an analysis of a number of futures studies on food and agriculture, at both local and global scale, and using quantitative and qualitative methods, with a specific focus on how they frame and address food security. After identifying future key drivers of change, implications for food security are discussed. The results show that futures studies in agriculture are entering into a third generation where key drivers of change include social and political forces as potential sources of discontinuities. It is proposed to move the field of futures studies from the exploration of food security to the exploration of food insecurity, whose multiple roots are anchored in social, political, economic and institutional dimensions, and to focus these future studies on ruptures and discontinuities rather than trends

The impact of support for imports on food security in Indonesia

This study on the impact of import support on food security was conducted in eight developing countries -including Indonesia- that were facing food insecurity and were recipients of subsidized exports and food aid. In Indonesia, the analysis of import flows in comparison with overall production and consumption data led to the selection of the three import substitute commodities, soybean, sugar and milk, that were the focus of this study. The objective of the study was to provide an analysis of the national impact of export support measures on food security, by taking into account their impact on the producers and consumers of the three commodities.IMPORTS, EXPORTS, FOOD, ECURITY, SOYBEANS, SUGAR, MILK, FOOD AID, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Food Security and Poverty, International Relations/Trade, Production Economics,