IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/agreko/54213.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can the world feed itself? Some insights from growth theory

Author

Listed:
  • Irz, Xavier T.
  • Roe, Terry L.

Abstract

This paper develops a two-sector growth model incorporating the essential distinguishing features of agriculture, including the reliance of production on a natural resource base as well as on industrially produced inputs, the low income elasticity of demand for food and the life-sustaining function of food consumption. In this framework, the ability of an economy to supply an adequate supply of food to a growing population can be related to the existence of a steady state. This property is used to define a simple analytical criterion upon which to assess the long-term food situation of a closed economy. This sustainability condition relates all the dynamic parameters of the economy: rates of technological change in the two sectors, rate of population growth and rate of land degradation. The condition is used to highlight the technological characteristics in agriculture conducive to sustainability and to assess empirically the food situation of a number of countries. Although no global food crisis appears to be looming ahead, the data suggest that sub-Saharan Africa is likely to increase its food dependence in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Irz, Xavier T. & Roe, Terry L., 2000. "Can the world feed itself? Some insights from growth theory," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 39(4), pages 1-16, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:agreko:54213
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.54213
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/54213/files/08%20_11_%20Xavier%20Dec%202000.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maurice Schiff & Alberto Valdes, 1994. "The Plundering of Agriculture in Developing Countries," Reports _013, World Bank Latin America and the Caribean Region Department.
    2. Pinstrup-Andersen, Per & Pandya-Lorch, Rajul & Rosegrant, Mark W., 1997. "The world food situation," Food policy reports 7, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Martin, Will & Mitra, Devashish, 1999. "Productivity growth and convergence in agriculture and manufacturing," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2171, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Buruchara, Robin & Tukahirwa, J. & Kashaija, Imelda & Farrow, A. & Wanjiku, C. & Rao, KPC & Adekunle, Wale & Kwesiga, Freddie & Majaliwa, MJG & Nyamwaro, SO & Kalibwani, R. & Tenywa, MM & Lunze, L. & , 2013. "Principles, design and processes of integrated agricultural research for development: experiences and lessons from LKPLS under the SSACP," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 8(3), pages 1-20, September.
    2. Dorward, Andrew & Kydd, Jonathan & Morrison, Jamie & Urey, Ian, 2004. "A Policy Agenda for Pro-Poor Agricultural Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 73-89, January.
    3. Rockström, Johan & Karlberg, Louise & Wani, Suhas P. & Barron, Jennie & Hatibu, Nuhu & Oweis, Theib & Bruggeman, Adriana & Farahani, Jalali & Qiang, Zhu, 2010. "Managing water in rainfed agriculture--The need for a paradigm shift," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(4), pages 543-550, April.
    4. Mohammed Mainuddin & Mac Kirby, 2009. "Agricultural productivity in the lower Mekong Basin: trends and future prospects for food security," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 1(1), pages 71-82, February.
    5. Rockstrom, J. & Karlberg, L., 2009. "Zooming in on the global hotspots of rainfed agriculture in water constrained environments," IWMI Books, Reports H041991, International Water Management Institute.
    6. Richard Tiffin & Xavier Irz, 2006. "Is agriculture the engine of growth?," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 35(1), pages 79-89, July.
    7. Masako Morioka & Takumi Kondo, 2017. "Agricultural Productivity Growth and Household Food Security Improvement in Nepal," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 220-240, November.
    8. Wani, S. P. & Sreedevi, T. K. & Rockstrom, J. & Ramakrishna, Y. S., 2009. "Rainfed agriculture: past trends and future prospects," IWMI Books, Reports H041990, International Water Management Institute.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Food Security and Poverty;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:agreko:54213. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (AgEcon Search). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/aeasaea.html .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.