Foreword
Glossary
Explanatory note

PART I
World review

I. CURRENT AGRICULTURAL SITUATION - FACTS AND FIGURES

1. Crop and livestock production
2. Food shortages and emergencies
3. World cereal supply situation and outlook¹
4. External assistance to agriculture
5. Food aid flows²
6. International agricultural princes
7. Fisheries: production, disposition and trade
8. Production and trade of forest products

II. OVERALL ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT AND AGRICULTURE

World economic environment
World trade and commodity prices
Implications for growth, trade and food security in developing countries
Prospects for countries particularly dependent on agricultural trade

III. SELECTED ISSUES

Microcredit: effects on rural poverty and the environment
Introduction
The history and evolution of microcredit
How microcredit works
How microcredit overcomes barriers to credit delivery
Effects of microcredit on behaviour of the rural poor
Economic effects
Social effects
Microcredit's link to natural resources
Current debates about microcredit
Conclusion

Conflicts, agriculture and food security
Introduction
Quantiflying losses resulting from conflict in developing countries
The situation by region
The nature of conflicts
Characteristics of agriculture and the impact of conflict
Policy issues
Policies to aid recovery
Notes

PART II
World food and agriculture: lessons from the past 50 YEARS

Introduction

HALF A CENTURY OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

The situation half a century ago
Developing country regions
Fisheries and forestry
THE 1950s
Uneven recovery and bipolarism
Industrialization
Development planning
Self-sufficiency
The problem of agricultural surpluses
Reassessing Africa
Forests
THE 1960s
Technological progress
Addressing hunger and malnutrition
Agriculture and development
Trade issues
Development assistance
THE 1970s
The world food crisis
Devaluation of the dollar and the energy crisis
The World Food Conference
The World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development
The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment
Population and food supply
Fisheries
Expansion in trade: the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations
THE 1980s
Economic crisis and adjustment
Far-reaching reforms in China
Food security
Financing agricultural and rural development
Environmental protection, natural resource management and sustainable development
Trade negotiations and issues
Social issues
THE 1990s
Nutrition and food security
Environment, natural resources and climate change
The changing international trade order
Concluding remarks
NOTES

THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL MODERNIZATION

Introduction
Modrnization and the explosion of disparities in world agricultural productivity
The modern agricultural revolution in developed countries
Economic mechanisms for the development of the agricultural revolution
Consequences of the agricultural revolution
Limits to the agricultural revolution
In the developing countries
In the developed countries
Assessment and future prospects
NOTES

FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY: WHY FOOD PRODUCTION MATTERS

Food security and nutrition in the last 50 years
Past and current trends and issues: implications for the early 2000s
Food security as energy adequacy
The framing conditions: people, food and entitlements
Demographic transitions and food security
Poverty and entitlements to food
Energy adequacy and inadequacy: levels and trends
Self-sufficiency in food staples and national food security
Underfeeding: potential and actual DES
Household food security against PEM
Security and insecurity: spatial and temporal variations
Seasons, years and famines
Group distribution and food security
Rurality
Region
Assets
Gender
International refugees and internally displaced persons
Staples production and access to food
Changing perceptions of availability, entitlements and production, 1945-2000
Food staples production, yields and income from employment
Reducing food insecurity via farm employment: staples yield growth
Reducing food insecurity via distributive access: land, gender rights and food
From energy adequacy to nutrition security
Agriculture and health - combining food security and nutrition security
Micronutrients - beyond food security in energy terms
Overnutrition, diet-related diseases, development and diet composition
Policy implications and conclusions
Reducing poverty and improving nutrition through staples production
The role of redistribution in achieving staples-based household food security
National staples self-sufficiency and food security
Coping with fluctuations in food supply and access
Focusing on vulnerable and disadvantaged groups
The environment and food security
From household food security to nutrition security: combined policy
NOTES

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTIVITY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Introduction
Describing the process of agricultural growth
The role of investments in increasing agricultural productivity
Measuring productivity growth in agriculture
Measures of partial factor productivity
Measures of total factor productivity (for aggregate agriculture)
Identifying sources of productivity growth
Area-yield accounting
Studies of returns to investment in agricultural productivity
Empirical evidence on the role of technological capital
Other issues in agricultural productivity change
Productivity changes and resource degradation
Productivity changes and income distribution
Sources of productivity gains
Lessons for policy-making
Prospects for agricultural performance
Favourable factors
Unfavourable factors
NOTES

POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE ALLEVIATION OF POVERTY AND FOOD INSECURITY

Introduction
Coordination failures
Government intervention to alleviate food insecurity
Economic and social functions of the government
Defining the role of the state
Issues of governance
Obstacles to collective action for change
Conclusions
NOTES

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

Key findings
Conclusions
Improving access to food
Promoting growth with equity
The importance of food and agricultural production
Building technological capital
Developing human capital
The importance of sound and stable institutions
Making incentives work
Keeping pace with globalization
NOTE

ANNEX TABLE

Special chapters of The State of Food and Agriculture

FAO Agricultural Policy and Economic Development Series

FAO Economic and Social Development Papers

Beginning with this issue, The State of Food and Agriculture will be published in June every year, instead of October as was the traditional practice. This will enable the presentation of more up-to-date information on recent trends and developments affecting, in particular, food and agricultural production. As a result of this change, The State of Food and Agriculture 1999 was not published in its traditional format. Instead, a document (The State of Food and Agriculture, C99/2) and a set of graphs and figures summarizing the main features of the current world food and agricultural situation (The State of Food and Agriculture in Figures) were presented at the 30th session of the FAO Conference in November 1999.

The statistical information in this publication has been prepared from information available to FAO up to March 2000.

The designations employed and the presentation of material do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. In some tables, the designations “developed countries” and “developing countries” are intended for statistical convenience and do not necessarily reflect an opinion regarding the stage reached by a particular country or area in the development process.

All rights reserved. Reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product for educational or other non-commercial purposes are authorized without any prior written permission from the copyright holders provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction of material in this information product for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission of the copyright holders. Applications for such permission should be addressed to the Chief, Publishing and Multimedia Service, Information Division, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy or by e-mail to copyright@fao.org

© FAO 2000