Global Food Price Inflation: Understanding and Containing a Dire Threat to Food Security
Dramatic increases in basic cereal prices during recent months and years have aroused intense concern worldwide about the impact on poor consumers in developing countries. This serious threat to food security has put the CGIAR on high alert, and the international research Centers it supports are responding vigorously on several fronts, as indicated in the resources listed below.
At the CGIAR’s 2007 Annual General Meeting, held last December in Beijing, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) presented a report entitled The World Food Situation: New Driving Forces and Required Actions . Based on comprehensive analyses carried out in 2007, the report describes how income growth, climate change, high energy prices, economic globalization and urbanization are all converging to transform food production, markets and consumption.
The result is a new global food equation, or better yet, a “perfect storm” in the making, as Science magazine put it recently. The new situation poses a dire threat to the nutrition of poor consumers in developing countries, who are being forced to reduce food purchases and shift to cheaper foods.
The IFPRI report offers a set of policy recommendations designed to stave off the worse consequences of food price inflation for poor consumers. In recent months, the Institute has continually refined and repeated its policy message at major meetings and through the mass media, urging national governments and international agencies to get the policy response right.
Meanwhile, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has spoken out strongly, as reflected in numerous high-profile media stories, on the rice crisis emerging in Asia. Examining its causes and impacts, IRRI has particularly emphasized the need for renewed commitment to the development and dissemination of improved technologies. This, it insists, is the “only viable long-term solution for . . . ensuring that affordable rice is available to poor consumers.” (see links to IRRI information below)
Long-term price declines from the 1970s through the turn of the century, which greatly benefited poor consumers, also lulled policymakers into complacency about continued investment in agricultural research and other measures needed for sustainable growth in agricultural productivity.
The consequences of that neglect are all too apparent today and so is the urgency of changing course now.
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) responds:
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International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) responds:
- Rice Crisis Solutions A comprehensive web site by IRRI on the rice price crisis.
- The Rice Crisis: What Needs to be Done? A background paper by IRRI. April 2008.
- Los Baños , Philippines – April 11, 2008 - The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is calling on the international community – with particular emphasis on donors - to start focusing on solutions to what’s being described as a “rice price crisis” in Asia and elsewhere. Read more.
- Los Baños, Philippines – April 10, 2008 - The upward spiral of rice prices is causing anxiety, if not panic, for governments of both importing and exporting countries. Read more from the latest issue of RICE TODAY.
- IRRI Media
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 Other relevant resources
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