A New Approach to Deal with the Global Food Crisis

Abstract

The global food crisis in 2008 made the World once again aware that investment in agriculture matters. In view of the long period of food surpluses and depressed food prices, many policy decision makers concluded that hunger is just a distribution problem. As a consequence, public funding for further crop improvements was cut back worldwide over the past two decades, while the private sector continued to invest primarily in the improvement of high value cash crops designed for large-scale and capital intensive farms. A global food security strategy for the 21st century must end this divergence of public and private sector activities and create more incentives to invest in tailor-made technologies that facilitate the economic empowerment of the rural poor and enable a more sustainable use of natural resources.

Keywords: Food Crisis, Agricultural Policy, New Growth Theory, Agricultural Biotechnology