Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- List of Maps
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Preface by Xanana Gusmao
- Preface by Carlos Belo
- Preface by José Ramos Horta
- Preface by Asian Development Bank
- PART I Introduction
- PART II Managing the Macroeconomy
- PART III International Economic Relations
- PART IV Agriculture and the Rural Economy
- 6 Food Policy in East Timor: Linking Agriculture, Economic Growth and Poverty Alleviation to Achieve Food Security
- 7 The Rural Economy and Institutions in East Timor
- 8 Coffee and the Economy in East Timor
- 9 Agriculture, Comparative Advantage and the Macroeconomy
- 10 Diversity and Differential Development in East Timor: Potential Problems and Future Possibilities
- PART V Institutions
- PART VI Banking and Finance
- PART VII Social Policy
- PART VIII Lessons from International Experience
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
6 - Food Policy in East Timor: Linking Agriculture, Economic Growth and Poverty Alleviation to Achieve Food Security
from PART IV - Agriculture and the Rural Economy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- List of Maps
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Preface by Xanana Gusmao
- Preface by Carlos Belo
- Preface by José Ramos Horta
- Preface by Asian Development Bank
- PART I Introduction
- PART II Managing the Macroeconomy
- PART III International Economic Relations
- PART IV Agriculture and the Rural Economy
- 6 Food Policy in East Timor: Linking Agriculture, Economic Growth and Poverty Alleviation to Achieve Food Security
- 7 The Rural Economy and Institutions in East Timor
- 8 Coffee and the Economy in East Timor
- 9 Agriculture, Comparative Advantage and the Macroeconomy
- 10 Diversity and Differential Development in East Timor: Potential Problems and Future Possibilities
- PART V Institutions
- PART VI Banking and Finance
- PART VII Social Policy
- PART VIII Lessons from International Experience
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Summary
No country can survive for long without reasonable guarantees of food security for the vast majority of the population, and East Timor is no exception. There are multiple ways of achieving food security, but a guarantee of stable food supplies in urban markets is a quite separate concept – and governmental task – from guaranteeing that each household has adequate access to food, even in rural areas. Stabilizing market supplies requires little more than a competent government with reasonable access to foreign exchange. Ending hunger at the household level requires the elimination of poverty, which even the most effective government can only hope to accomplish over decades or generations. Integrating these two tasks and coping with the vastly different time horizons involved is one of the central roles of government. This effort will define its approach to food policy.
FOOD POLICY AND FOOD SECURITY
The links connecting food policy, food security and the role of government depend to a high degree on the nature of the economy and the set of institutions embedded in the society and political economy. From this perspective, East Timor faces an extraordinary challenge. The conclusion of the Joint Assessment Mission to East Timor sponsored by the World Bank in 1999 emphasized both the difficulties and the importance of these linkages:
Defining priorities amongst so much destruction is a difficult task. Yet two areas stand out as requiring urgent attention if East Timor's economy and society are not to flounder.
51. The first is agriculture. Without agricultural recovery, East Timor's population will remain dependent on food aid for some time to come. Aside from causing immediate suffering, this may also produce long-term economic distortions in the shape of irreversible rural-urban migration, and a culture of dependency amongst rural households …
52. The second urgent priority is to reconstitute capacity in the state. This is critical to prevent a situation of complete laissez-faire caused by the absence of civil regulations, taxation, dispute-resolution mechanisms and non-military law and order functions. It is also a key pre-requisite to the sustainability of developmental initiatives in the longer-term (World Bank 1999d: 15).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- East TimorDevelopment Challenges for the World's Newest Nation, pp. 99 - 109Publisher: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak InstitutePrint publication year: 2001