Agricultural production is typically a risky business. Farmers face a variety of price, yield, and resource risks which make their incomes unstable from year to year. In many cases farmers are also confronted by the risk of catastrophe.

The weight of agricultural prices in political debate, their searing importance to the poor, and their common association with unusually low agricultural output levels often lead to policies that focus directly on prices at the expense of other un

Public intervention in foodgrain markets is pervasive in most developing countries.

Governments in developing countries have traditionally played a dominant role in foodgrain supply management. The problems and issues raised by this intervention have been analyzed in a number of studies made during the last decade.

Agricultural price policies and allied instruments evolved in India in the context of shortages and excess demand during World War II (India 1975).

Determination of agricultural prices is intensely political because of its profound influence on equity, income distribution, consumption, production, and economic development.

This chapter analyzes the combined effect of commercial policy and ex-change rate management on relative prices affecting agriculture.

The government of the People's Republic of China has used agricultural price policies and other instruments which influence or determine relative prices in agriculture since the early 1950s.

Economic growth is achieved largely through capital accumulation and technical change. However, these two processes are not independent.

The substantial growth in world cereal production of the past two and onehalf decades has been accompanied by a widening band of variability around the trend.

The public expects a responsible government to foster growth to provide greater income and well-being in the future, equity to provide a fair society and social cohesion, and stability to reduce the tensions of uncertainty and the likelihood of a

Forces underlying commodity trade, capital movement, technology transfer, and political cooperation contribute to increased interdependence among nations.

The economic argument for intervention in product or factor markets in the agricultural sector rests largely on the need to provide incentives to producers.

The role of the state in providing food subsidies to consumers has a long though sometimes ignoble history.

Macroeconomic and trade implications of consumer-oriented food subsidies.

Governments of most countries attempt to influence the price consumers pay for food. In low-income countries the aim is frequently one of reducing consumer food prices below a free-market level.

The Mexican government has been involved in regulating the prices of staples since the 1930s.1 Formally, the dual objectives of this long-standing intervention have been to protect the rural campesinos (peasants) against speculators and drastic de

Government interventions in foodgrain markets have existed in India in one form or another for about four decades, starting during the Second World War.

The goals of consumer food subsidies vary among countries and over time. Analyses of food subsidies in a number of countries reveal that one or both of two goals are commonly found.

Malnutrition is a problem associated with poverty. Although all poor people are at risk of having an inadequate food intake, it is usually the maternal and preschooler population that are the most nutritionally vulnerable.