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Actors, Resources and Territories in Development Innovation and Development in Agriculture and the Agrifoods Sector Markets, Organizations, Institutions and Operators' StrategiesSoaring world cereal prices: a boon for African farmers?
18/07/2011 - Article
The rise in global rice prices has not been uniformly or systematically passed on to food markets in five countries of sub-Saharan Africa. This needs to be taken into account when drafting food security policy.
The soaring world cereal prices in 2007/2008 and the subsequent riots in several sub-Saharan African cities reignited the debate on food security policy. Could rising world cereal prices actually be a blessing in terms of boosting food production by guaranteeing more attractive prices for farmers? This implies determining whether global price fluctuations are actually transmitted to national market prices. This was the objective of a study focusing on five countries in the region.
Between 1994 and 2009, the degree of transmission of world rice prices to domestic markets varied considerably from one country to another: low or even inexistent in Mali, Cameroon and Madagascar; high in Senegal and Niger. The 2007/2008 price increases made no structural changes to the types of transmission identified over the long term.
The segmentation of food markets between imported rice, local rice and other foodstuffs explains this imperfect transmission of global prices to sub-Saharan markets. This finding must be taken into consideration in food security strategies in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Soaring world cereal prices: a boon for African farmers?
Frédéric Lançon, Hélène David-Benz, Véronique Meuriot, Ludovic Temple
Perspective No. 9
CIRAD 2011
Perspective sets out to suggest new lines of debate and action, backed up by research work, but does not claim to express CIRAD's official position on the topics covered.
This series of 4-page summaries presents novel ideas or policies on development issues of strategic importance for countries in the South: food security, land tenure, climate change, energy security, forest management, standards, etc.
Perspective is intended for decision-makers (public, private, associations, etc), but also for communicators–journalists, teachers, etc–and anyone capable of taking on board simply formulated ideas. It is published in English and French.
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