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In 2011, the G20 Agriculture Ministers released an action plan on food price volatility and agriculture to address sustainable increases in agricultural production and productivity. The plan recognized that such increases would necessitate improvements in land and water management, improved agricultural technologies, a strong enabling environment with increased investment, particularly from the private sector, well-functioning markets and better market information, and efforts to mitigate and manage the risks associated with excessive agricultural commodity price volatility.

At last week's ICTSD dialogue on the needs of agricultural exporting and importing countries, export restrictions received a lot of negative attention. Panelist Joseph Glauber, Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and former Chief Economist at the United States Department of Agriculture, shared his insights on the matter via email with Food for Thought:

Contemporary globalization has been marked by significant shifts in the organization and governance of global value chains, says Gary Gereffi of the Center on Globaliztion, Governance & Competitiveness (CGGC) at Duke University. These changes imply more opportunities for connection and for economic, social and environmental upgrading in large emerging economies, as well as challenges for small countries and firms on the periphery.

Join us at 14:30 UTC +1 (9:30 AM EDT) for "Understanding the Interests of Agricultural Exporting and Importing Countries , " an informal dialogue exploring options for promoting food security and rural development by building on recent ICTSD work on national policy trajectories.

This content is republished with permission from the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET).