Chapter 1


 Section 3 Food Security and Major Development Objectives

 3.1 Food security, poverty and growth

 Over the last decade, both in the developing world and in the ex-centrally planned
 economies, there has been considerable pressure on governments to limit their interventions
 in the economy to those areas where, for reasons of market failure, or the need for some form
 of collective action, governments can be more efficient than the market in organising
 economic activity and providing goods and services. It has generally been accepted that
 centrally directed economies and those economies where government has taken a major role
 in providing goods and services have suffered from distorted incentive structures and prices
 which have generally not benefited the most vulnerable in society while, at the same time,
 these have had a negative impact on rates of economic growth.

 The role of government in providing a institutional framework to enable the efficient
 operation of markets and encourage private-sector led growth is very important, but it is
 not their only role. Governments have also an important role in terms of creating a7
 framework of rights and obligations which holds society together and responds to the needs
 of its citizens.

 This is particularly important in the case of food security. At a fundamental level, the state is
 in theory, and in most countries in practice, the definer and protector of property rights. In
 the absence of any enforceable property rights, meeting one's food requirements becomes a
 question of the distribution of force, and a household's relationship to the holders of power.
 Markets become unworkable and the production and exchange of food declines rapidly, as
 has been seen in countries racked by civil war. So the state is important in providing a stable)
 framework for production and exchange. As will be discussed in Chapter 5, the state can also /
 take a role in providing infrastructure and reducing market failure in the agriculture sector.

 Historically, as shown in Box 1.3, the..sate has-also intervened toensure certain minimum
 levels of food security, often primarily in its own interest, to ensure political stability. State
 intervention will depend not only on political ideology and concerns of government, but
 also on the government's capacity to intervene. It is not uncommon in poor countries for
 government to make a significant impact on entitlements in urban areas, but to have very
 little effect in rural areas because of inability to implement programmes or administer
 regulations in more remote areas.

 Food insecurity is almost inevitably a result of poverty. If individuals and households have
 sufficient resources, then they should be able, under normal circumstances, to have access to
 sufficient food for their needs. In situations of war and famine, people's entitlements can
 change in value very rapidly, so that it is difficult to assess wealth, or even what wealth
Means. However, in reasonably stable economies, poverty and food security can be seen as
 different perspectives on the same underlying problem. This perception underlies a shift that
 has taken place in some studies from a concentration on food security to discussion of
 livelihood security. Focusing on food security does have the advantage of emphasising the
 dominance of the food and agriculture sector in the lives of poor, particularly in rural areas.


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