Chapter 5


 greater are the effects as described above. If world market prices were above the
 domestic market price, no commercial food imports would take place under free
 market conditions.

There are further factors and conditions governing the level of domestic prices, import prices
and the volume of food imports, and determining the extent to which the effects described
above take place. This refers, for example, to the following issues:

1) The exchange rate (see section 3.3 of Chapter 4 and Annex 2B);

2) Government market and price interventions (see section 7 of Chapter 4);

3) Concessional (food aid) imports, implying lower import prices compared to
 commercial imports (this issue will be discussed in detail in Chapter 6), and:

4) The uses of food aid. Food aid supplies can be used, for example:

 to build up food stocks/security reserves (see section 2.2.2 above);
 to increase general market supplies, by feeding the food aid deliveries into
 normal market channels to sell them at normal market prices. (Typical
 approach to programme food aid, see Chapter 6. The effects are as described
 above);
 for specific food and nutrition interventions, aimed at improving the
 consumption of those who, due to poverty or other reasons, have insufficient
 access to the food they need. This refers for example to targeted food
 subsidies, emergency relief, feeding programmes for vulnerable groups, food
 for work schemes, etc. Such approaches are discussed in the following section.

 3. Improving Access to Food

 3.1 Access to food on national and household levels

 Often the crucial food problem does not consist of a general shortage in the volume of food
 production and supplies but in insufficient access to the food which is available on the market
 or which would be produced and made available if absorbed by effective demand (see the
 important link between food demand and food markets in Figure 4-2, Chapter 4). A
 precondition for food security is, therefore, not only the availability of adequate and reliable
 food supplies but also sufficient access to food supplies for the household to meet their
 requirements. The importance of access to food as the other essential precondition of food
 security was emphasized at the World Food Summit and is reflected in the Commitment
 number two "We will implement policies aimed at eradicating poverty and inequality and
 improving physical and economic access by all, at all times, to sufficient, nutritionally
 adequate and safe food and its effective utilisation" (see Chapter 6, section 5). Access to
 adequate food as a prerequisite for food security applies to the national as well as the
 individual household level.


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