Introduction Global food production has grown faster than the world's population over the past forty years. Yet many poor countries and millions of poor people continue to suffer from food insecurity and hunger. USDA’ Economic Research Service (ERS) estimates that a third of the population of s 67 developing countries— roughly 900 million people— currently suffer | Resource Quality Agricultural Productivity and Food Security Stacey Rosen and Keith Wiebe USDA Economic Research Service Washington DC American Agricultural Economics Association Selected Paper Chicago August 2001 Copyright 2001 by Stacey Rosen and Keith Wiebe. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies. Resource Quality Agricultural Productivity and Food Security Stacey Rosen and Keith Wiebe USDA Economic Research Service Washington DC AAEA Selected Paper Chicago August 2001 Introduction Global food production has grown faster than the world s population over the past forty years. Yet many poor countries and millions of poor people continue to suffer from food insecurity and hunger. USDA s Economic Research Service ERS estimates that a third of the population of 67 developing countries roughly 900 million people currently suffer from insufficient food intake. Also the amount of food needed to secure nutritionally adequate diets for these people was estimated at more than 17 million tons in 2000 and is projected to grow by 70 percent over the next decade. Sub-Saharan Africa the most vulnerable region is projected to account for almost 80 percent of this nutritional gap in 2010. For many developing countries growth in agricultural productivity is critical to improvements in food security for two reasons. First growth in agricultural productivity translates into larger food supplies and lower food prices for all consumers. This is particularly true in many of the poorest countries which depend heavily on domestic food production for a large part of their food because financial constraints limit imports. In Sub-Saharan Africa for example domestic production accounts for 90 percent of food availability on average. Second growth in agricultural productivity means higher incomes and thus improved ability to purchase food for the large share
