Tropentag 2023, September 20 - 22, Berlin, Germany "Competing pathways for equitable food systems transformation: trade-offs and synergies."

CGIAR initiative on rethinking food markets: An overview and an example of preliminary results from Ethiopia

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), United States

Abstract

Food markets in developing countries are under pressure to provide more nutritious foods at affordable prices while ensuring environmental sustainability and a fair return to farmers, particularly small-scale farmers. This presentation describes the CGIAR Initiative on Rethinking Food Markets. This Initiative is collaborative programme of applied research designed to identify interventions in food value chains that will reduce poverty, promote inclusion, and minimise environmental impact. Seven CG Centers are working on food value chains to test promising innovations and gather rigorous evidence of their impact on key outcome variables. The Initiative is divided into four work packages (WPs). WP1 focuses on testing interventions to improve value chains for export commodities, while WP2 carries out similar studies on food commodities marketed domestically. WP3 examines cross-commodity services such as finance and logistics. And WP4 is also building a knowledge platform to share resources, tools, and results related to the analysis of food markets. The case studies are located in Honduras, Guatemala, Nigeria, Uganda, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, and Bangladesh. The presentation also provides preliminary results of one subcomponent of the Initiative that explores the impact of exchange rate controls in Ethiopia on farmers growing coffee, sesame, and other export crops. Exchange rate controls reduce the local-currency value of export revenue, acting as a tax on export commodities. This analysis shows the impact of this policy on farm income and, indirectly, on rural poverty. The results confirm that macroeconomic policies can have powerful effects on individual commodity sectors, potentially overwhelming programmes to strengthen value chains.

Keywords: And exchange rate, exports, finance, food, logistics, marketing, value chains

Contact Address: Nicholas Minot, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, United States, e-mail: N.MINOTCGIAR.ORG