Food Security and Economic Growth: an Asian perspective

Food security and economic growth interact in a mutually reinforcing process over the course of development. It is only in modern times that entire societies have achieved food security. Earlier, only privileged members of society were able to escape from chronic hunger and the constant threat of famine (Fogel 1991). Many countries in the developing world, especially in Africa and South Asia, have not managed this escape. In these countries, understanding the factors that cause widespread hunger and vulnerability to famines, and the mechanisms available to alleviate their impact, remain important intellectual challenges (Ravallion 1987, 1997; Sen 1981; Dreze and Sen 1989). There is a different way to pose the question, however. Rather than asking how to cope with hunger and famine, the question might be how to escape from their threat altogether. As Fogel (1991) has emphasised, this is a modern question that is only partly answered by the institutional and technological innovations that are at the heart of modern economic growth (Kuznets 1966). Without these innovations, the modern escape from hunger to food security would not have been possible. But the record of economic growth for the developing countries since the 1950s shows that, even in countries with relatively low levels of per capita income, government interventions to enhance food security can lift the threat of hunger and famine. The countries most successful at this task are in East and Southeast Asia, although the experience in South Asia has been instructive as well (Timmer 2000).