Tackling rural poverty, together

Extract

Eyes all around the world are turned toward agricultural markets. Climate change, the rising price of oil, biofuels, speculation on financial markets and income growth in emerging economies are some of the factors that have combined over the past two years to cause an unexpected rise in commodity prices.

After decades of low prices, this increase should be good news for farmers and countries that produce agricultural products. To some extent, we argue, higher prices can bring some benefits, although not necessarily in the short term. The rapid price increases are causing enormous stress for the urban and rural poor in regions dependent on food imports. Net food-importing, low-income countries are struggling to pay the food import bills, which diverts money from other needed investments. It is time for an urgent rethink of the respective roles of markets and governments. Strong agricultural policies will be needed to make high prices work for development.

Ministers gathering in Accra for the UN Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD XII, need to take a hard look at the record of three decades of commodity market liberalization and must take action to rebalance power relations in agricultural markets.