Chapter 4


8.2 Other sector policies and linkages to food security

Besides agricultural sector policies, there are other areas in structural and sectoral adjustment
with possible substantial effects on agricultural sector performance and/or on food security,
for example:

1) Transport and infrastructure policies,
2) Health policy,
3) Education policy,
4) Industrial sector adjustment.

1) Transport and infrastructure policies

 are closely linked with agricultural marketing, as they affect the costs and the efficiency
 of agricultural marketing operations.

 Liberalisation of transport tariffs and privatization of transport fleets are common
 elements of adjustment programmes. The effects, but also the problems, are similar to
 those of market and price liberalisation; where the government had a legal or effective
 monopoly and ran a transport fleet in an inefficient way, there is substantial scope for
 improvements, in terms of reduced transport costs or better services. Both effects imply
 improvements in marketing performance with positive repercussions on food security.

 Such positive effects stand against possible adverse effects for certain regions, if private
 transporters refuse to service remote areas with difficult access. This effect may
 be compounded, or compensated, by infrastructural policies. Reduced infrastructural

 investments are a common phenomenon under adjustment. This does. however, not
 necessarily mean a deterioration of the existing infrastructure. The opposite could be true:
 if less money is available to build new roads, the little money which is left may be used
 for maintaining the existing road network, a task which has been widely neglected in
 many countries in the past.

2) Health policy

 The issues of reduced state expenditures and cost recovery policies in the health sector
 have already been raised in connection with fiscal policies (Section 4.4 ). As a result of
 such policies, food security may be affected in two ways:

 a higher share of the household income has to be allocated for health service
 expenditures, leading to a real income decline and, specifically in low income
 households, less money available to purchase food.

 households may refrain from consulting health services. This could result in increased
 morbidity and a worsening of the nutritional status.


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