Food Policy for the PoorIFPRI's Board of Trustees is proud to be celebrating the institute's 30th anniversary in 2005. When IFPRI began in 1975, its first concern was the urgent world food situation of that period. Since then, IFPRI has spent three decades broadening its research programs and tackling research questions in new ways. At the same time, IFPRI has kept its sights on the ultimate goal of alleviating hunger and malnutrition and has become a respected source of research and analysis on policies related to food and agriculture in developing countries. The first step in overcoming hunger and malnutrition is to understand what works and what doesn't, and this is the task that has now engaged IFPRI for three decades.
IFPRI was fortunate to have as its first board chairman Sir John Crawford, an Australian economist who was a passionate advocate for international agricultural research and an architect of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Crawford and the rest of the first Board of Trustees helped set the institute on a course that has proven to be fruitful and sustainable, and each of IFPRI's five directors general has played a distinct and critical role in advancing IFPRI along that course.
Over the past 30 years, highly dedicated groups of professionals have served as IFPRI's Board of Trustees, playing an important role in offering guidance and establishing a direction for the institute through their involvement in strategic planning, budgets, personnel appointments, and oversight. We have benefited from a consistent policy of drawing half of the board's members from developing countries. But the board's efforts would be worth little without the ideas and hard work of a superb staff. IFPRI's researchers and support staff have worked tirelessly to keep the institute at the cutting edge of knowledge about food policy. They have been firmly committed to generating policy-relevant research that can point the way to improving the lives of hungry and malnourished people.
In anticipation of the institute's 30th anniversary, the Board of Trustees asked IFPRI to produce a book to honor the occasion. This compilation of highlights from IFPRI's research over the years shows how work done at IFPRI has contributed to the body of knowledge concerning the factors that contribute to agricultural development and increases in agricultural productivity and their impact on poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. In addition to conducting studies and analyzing results, IFPRI has steadily advanced its efforts to spread this knowledge and understanding to wide groups of academics, development practitioners, and policymakers around the world. While it is satisfying to look back on past accomplishments, this anniversary also serves another purpose: it offers an occasion to remind ourselves that there is still much work to be done to bring about a healthy and productive life for all people. Herein lies the challenge that IFPRI must meet in the next 30 years.
Isher Judge Ahluwalia
Chair, IFPRI Board of Trustees
The book is available for download in PDF format as an entire document or by chapter.
- Full Book
- Table of Contents, Foreword, and Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Chapter 2: Projecting the World Food Situation: From Trends and Variability Analysis toward Models and Scenarios
- Chapter 3: Development Strategies and the Role of Food and Agriculture: From Growth Linkages to Institutions and Economywide Policy Analysis
- Chapter 4: Markets and Trade: From International Commodities and Trade Policy toward Analyses of Domestic and Regional Markets
- Chapter 5: Increasing Agricultural Production and Productivity: From Green Revolution Assessment to Broader Technology Policy Research
- Chapter 6: Managing Natural Resources: From Land and Water to Institutional Innovations
- Chapter 7: Assuring Household Access to Food: From Subsidies to Safety Nets and Insurance
- Chapter 8: Nutrition and Health: From Intrahousehold Processes to HIV/AIDS and Nutrient Deficiencies
- Chapter 9: Conclusions and Looking Ahead: IFPRI in the Coming Decade
- Appendix 1: Peer-Reviewed IFPRI Publications, 1975–2005
- Appendix 2: IFPRI Board of Trustees, 1975–2005
- About the Editors
- Covers
- "[The book] will be extremely useful to researchers, students, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and policy-makers to further strengthen the research on food policy issues."
Pakistan Development Review 44 (3): 321-223.
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