Policy options for food security

Although food security can take on different manifestations, it is basically the problem of people not having enough food. There are two types of food insecurity examined in this paper. They are the chronic and transitory dimensions of food insecurity. The former dilemma focuses on the problem of households and nations lacking the means to either produce or purchase sufficient quantities of food, on the average over good and bad years. The transitory dimension treats the problems of intermittent disruptions in access to sufficient food by nations and households as a consequence of instability in food production, food prices and incomes. Various strategies are discussed in this paper that focus on alleviating food insecurity. Possible solutions range from investments in infrastructure supporting agricultural development to using explicit or implicit transfer payments to augment the incomes of the chronically food insecure, stabilization of food prices and real income as well as income relief and adequate marketing systems.