Search IFPRI web

Hunger and AIDS often coexist and interact: malnutrition and food insecurity heighten susceptibility to HIV exposure and infection, while AIDS in turn exacerbates hunger and malnutrition. High food prices aggravate this vicious cycle, overlaying an acute crisis onto a chronic one. AIDS has been a serious food security issue in many African countries, especially in southern Africa, for years before the 2008 […]

Biofortified crops offer a rural-based intervention that, by design, initially reach these more remote populations, which comprise a majority of the undernourished in many countries, and then extend to urban populations as production surpluses are marketed. In this way, biofortification complements fortification and supplementation programs, which work best in centralized urban areas and then reach […]

Selling crops used to be a complicated process for Aweke Teshome. The Ethiopian farmer never knew the fair market price for his products, or how they rated in quality. He was forced to sell at whatever price the traders offered. Worse, with no crop storage he lost money in times of surplus. “We were not encouraged […]

online at The Economist July 29 – August 8 Joachim von Braun, IFPRI Director General, will be participating in the debate on the proposition: “This house believes there is an upside for humanity in the rise of food prices.”  Follow the debate at The Economist. 

The benefits least developed countries (LDCs) can draw from a multilateral trade reform as designed by the modalities made public in May 2008 are negligible, and some countries will even face adverse effects. World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiators should make a supplementary effort in favor of the poorest countries. The Duty-Free Quota-Free (DFQF) Initiative moves […]

This presentation features an innovative initiative to improve governance for agricultural and allied development. The initiative, which is currently being piloted in the Rwenzori Region of Western Uganda, combines a set of coordinated local civil society interventions with best global corporate practices in improving development governance. The “closed-loop” governance mechanisms of the initiative link grassroots […]

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has recently compiled a web-base bibliography of peer-reviewed applied economics literature to assess the impact of genetically engineered (GE) crops in developing economies. All 190 articles currently in this database have been organized under four major themes that address the different areas of impact:  advantages to farmers, consumer […]

Ruth Meinzen-Dick, a senior research fellow in IFPRI’s Environment and Production Technology Division and chair of IFPRI’s Gender Task Force, launched the seminar by noting that gender analysis has been largely absent from discussions of the current food price crisis. Yet more than 15 years of research on gender and intrahousehold resource allocation suggests not […]

This year’s World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is addressing “Combating land degradation for sustainable agriculture.” Sponsored by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the decision to focus on agriculture is particularly timely due to the rise in global food prices, and the impact this is having on the world’s poor farmers. Although IFPRI has […]

A brief review of different methods for evaluating the impacts of rural road improvements will be followed by an assessment of the impacts of rural road rehabilitation on market development in rural Vietnam. The presentation will focus on the different kinds of impacts and the geographic, community, and household factors that explain them. A key […]

Maria Teresa stands with her children at the doorway of her two-room house in Los Baños, the Philippines. At first glance, all of her children look healthy, but according to a visiting nutrition counselor, they are all malnourished. The youngest, Joyme, a severely undernourished two-year-old girl, weighs just 16 pounds (7.3 kg). They are entirely […]

Joachim von Braun, director general of IFPRI, launched the policy seminar by stating that both supply and demand factors are contributing to the current food price crisis. This crisis comes at a time when the world’s income distribution is more unequal than ever, and it compromises progress toward achieving the poverty and hunger Millennium Development […]

Conference program and presentations are attached in PDF format.

On May 7, 2008, Mark W. Rosegrant, Director of IFPRI’s Environment and Production Technology Division, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on the impact of biofuels on grain prices and its policy implications. Dr. Rosegrant’s analysis focused on three potential scenarios: From the conclusion: “It is therefore important to find ways to keep […]

Domitila Revilla Romero, 56, lives in a shantytown on the outskirts of Lima and works as a laundress to help support her three children, her nephew, and her daughter-in-law, all of whom earn increasingly precarious livings. But as food prices rise, Ms. Revilla is not only finding it harder to make ends meet, sometimes she […]

The March 2008 issue of IFPRI Forum features an interview with R. K. Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, which won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore, on what climate change will mean for poor and rural people and what the next steps should be. Excerpts from the interview are included below. FORUM: In your Nobel lecture, you emphasized the […]

IFPRI Policy Brief • April 2008 The sharp increase in food prices over the past couple of years has raised serious concerns about the food and nutrition situation of poor people in developing countries, about inflation, and—in some countries—about civil unrest. Real prices are still below their mid-1970s peak, but they have reached their highest point […]

Development in Sub-Saharan Africa is often perceived as being blocked by issues of inappropriate agricultural technologies, immense institutional constraints, and deep problems with the organization and management of agricultural systems. In spite of this, there are many examples of technological, institutional, and organizational innovations that are transforming agriculture and leading to growth and development. However, […]

Commentary Toward a New Global Governance System for Agriculture, Food, and Nutrition What Are the Options? The current world food and agricultural policy system is in disarray. For some time, we have observed the symptoms of this disarray with concern. These symptoms include incoherent or inadequate responses to exploding food prices; the slowdown in agricultural productivity […]

Prices are surging for food commodities worldwide, posing a tough policy challenge for developing countries—can they protect poor consumers without squelching new opportunities for farmers? Poor consumers across the globe are up in arms about their rising food bills. In December 2007, Mexicans rioted in response to an enormous jump in tortilla prices, which quadrupled […]