Reducing food losses to protect domestic food security in the Middle East and North Africa
No hay miniatura disponible
Fecha
Autores
Título de la revista
ISSN de la revista
Título del volumen
Editor
Resumen
Descripción
Food security policies are usually costly and involve trade-offs. We investigated this issue by
simulating three policy responses to rising world food prices, using the MAGNET model applied to
the Middle East and North Africa. A policy of tackling agricultural food losses increases food
consumption at lower costs and prices, with welfare gains forming an upper bound of the costs of
tackling agricultural food losses. Whilst trade-offs occur as resources are drawn from elsewhere,
they outperform a policy of reducing import tariffs by boosting agricultural and overall growth much
more. This leads to a reduced rather than increased import dependency, and higher welfare gains. A
policy of stimulating equal-sized economic growth via manufacturing and services does worse
regarding food prices, consumption and import dependency, but generates slightly higher welfare
gains. Given their potential to improve food security, measures to tackle food losses in agriculture
should focus on cost-effective solutions.