Organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute and the Council for Agricultural Research Policy
Agriculture still commands an important position in the economies of most South Asian countries. Well-functioning markets and improved access to food is critical to improve conditions of poverty and food security in this region. Hence, policies that affect trade and market reforms in agriculture are crucial and should be implemented in a way that the poor segments of the society benefits. Distortions in agriculture markets both in developed and developing countries have resulted in unequal distribution of benefits whereby the poor are often affected disproportionately.
Trade negotiations in agriculture, even under the WTO regime, have been most controversial and also have failed to bring about any concrete outcomes. Both developed and developing countries use a wide variety of protection measures aimed at agriculture. Either through negative bias against agriculture as in developing countries or through active subsidies as followed by developed countries, these biases have a distorting effect on agricultural trade. Developing countries have not fully benefited from multi-country negotiations due to their inferior bargaining power. Unfavorable terms of trade in agriculture and slow economic growth due to trade restrictions would lead to greater levels of food insecurity and poverty.
In-keeping with IFPRI's mandate to reduce hunger and provide food security, it is essential to equip these countries with the capacity to analyze various aspects of trade liberalization in agriculture. Investments in alternative policies which enhance the distributive aspects of agriculture like social safety nets, supplementary feeding programs and food-for-work programs have become an important tool for achieving poverty alleviation and have proven to perform well in several developing countries.
It is therefore essential to analyze the effects of various policies on agriculture trade to be able to make informed decisions. The methods for analyzing agriculture market reforms for policy purposes remain poorly understood and the analysis that is undertaken is rarely applied in the region's policymaking context. To enhance the region's capacity for analyzing the impacts and outcomes of various policies relating to trade and agriculture, a methods workshop will be organized in Colombo, Sri Lanka from July 25-29, 2005 for researchers, policymakers, trainers, and postgraduate university professors.
The workshop will examine the methods for analyzing trade and market reforms in South Asian agriculture in a global setting. It will introduce methods of assessing various agricultural support measures and the various types of subsidies used for input and output production and marketing. Multi-market trade models will be used to analyze agriculture market efficiency in developing countries. Understanding and analyzing the various forms of supports and domestic market reforms that are likely to be introduced would help in deriving policy implications for South Asian agriculture. The need for a renewed agenda for markets reforms will also be emphasized.
The objectives of the workshop are as follows:
- Understanding the trade and market reform challenges facing South Asian agriculture;
- Strengthening capacity for analyzing agricultural trade and markets policies;
- Developing capacity for analyzing domestic reforms for agriculture; and
- Strengthening capacity for analyzing effects of distributive policies for reducing poverty and malnutrition in developing countries.
The workshop's content will be based on ongoing research at IFPRI that has been conducted under the South Asia Initiative of IFPRI. Researchers of these studies will constitute the core team of resource persons for conducting the various sessions of the workshop. A tentative program is attached for discussion among the partners and collaborators in the region.
The agenda is available in PDF format.