Evidence-Based Research

With less than two years to go to meet the Millennium Development Goals, how has the world done on its goal of halving hunger? According to the IFPRI 2013 Global Food Policy Report, released this week, much work remains. While the number of chronically hungry people has declined from 1 billion to around 842 million over the last 30 years, this number is still unacceptably high. One in eight people around the world suffers from hunger on a daily basis.

Extreme poverty and gender inequality are two of the most daunting challenges faced by the developing world. To tackle these challenges, many policymakers are turning to public works programs. Such programs can help governments provide stable, balanced wages to households in need, while at the same time investing in important infrastructure, like roads and irrigation systems, that can promote economic development in the future. But these programs are not without controversy.

The EU’s trade-distorting domestic farm subsidies were lower in the 2010-11 marketing year than in any previous year, according to new figures that the 28-member bloc has reported to the WTO.

Domestic support payments that are classed as distorting trade fell to €11 billion, the EU says - one-sixth of the level they were at a decade ago, before the European Commission introduced successive reforms aimed at “decoupling” farm subsidies from farmers’ production decisions.

With the Bali ministerial now behind them, the process to develop a Doha “work programme” by year’s end is beginning to gear up in Geneva, with WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo urging members last week to use 2014 to get the struggling negotiations “back on track.”

Two months ago, WTO trade ministers were able to announce their first multilateral deal in nearly 20 years. The Bali package, named after the Indonesian island province where it was agreed, also marked the first deliverables from the Doha Round of negotiations, which have been underway since September 2001.

More protection against low prices, while fixed payments ended
decade-long shift to subsidized crop insurance reinforced

By David Orden, IFPRI

After more than three years of oft-times tumultuous positioning, posturing, and negotiations, the U.S. Congress has passed a new five-year Farm Bill: the Agricultural Act of 2014. The bill, which the President will sign into law on February 7, reaffirms the government’s longstanding support to farmers through 2018.