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Benoît Daviron
Montpellier, France
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Food price volatility: a CIRAD researcher presents a report to the Committee on World Food Security

14/10/2011 - Press release

Four scientists from Bangladesh, Canada, Mali and France (the latter represented by Benoît Daviron, a CIRAD researcher who headed the team) were asked in 2011 by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) to draft a report entitled Price Volatility and Food Security . It was presented to the FAO as of 17 October, during the FSC annual meeting.

As Benoît Daviron explains: "the report was fuelled by the food price rises seen since 2007. We diagnosed the causes, the problems posed for food security, and the solutions required on a national and international level ".

Analyses and recommendations

  • Define new rules for regulating markets: new commercial rules that favour food security and regulate speculation are required.
  • Coordinate national stock policies: the low level of global stocks played a determining role in the price rises seen. The debate concerning the role of stocks in regulating international markets needs to be resumed in order to come up with ways of coordinating national policies in this field.
  • Slow the growth in demand for food goods in rich countries: excessive consumptions drives prices up and creates imbalances between rich and poor countries. Biofuel production, or excessive meat consumption in rich countries, are in competition with consumption by less privileged groups in poor countries.
  • Relaunch public investment in the agricultural sector: the agricultural sector has been overlooked for the past two decades. Major public investment is now required, not to boost the growth in production (which is already strong), but to foster the switch to production models that are much more economical in terms of fossil fuels, and generate less pollution.

The report was validated by the 15 experts of the HLPE Steering Committee, chaired by Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, the father of India's green revolution.

Read the report

The Price Volatility and Food Security report

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