This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of grain reserves and grain banks. One important argument against establishing official reserves is that they are more likely to stiffen the barriers to food trade whereas a financial grain bank might be used to reduce those barriers. A...

One major concern of the Third World, with its emotional and moralistic overtones, is the production and distribution of food. Unfortunately, however, the world food situation is very complex and any over-simplification is counter-productive. This article confronts the myths with the facts...

Since the Arab oil embargo and the US-Russian wheat deal of 1973 there has been much talk of "agri-power" implying that the United States which normally accounts for 50% or more of the world's wheat exports could follow the oil producers' example and unleash a food weapon to bring the Third...

In August the Soviet government agreed to the second one-year extension of the US-USSR grain agreement, which has regulated grain trade between the two countries since 1976. Although a net exporter of grain for the best part of this century, the USSR has become increasingly dependent on imports...

A new catch-phrase in development policy, "political conditionality", has rapidly established itself in recent times. Increasing numbers of Western politicians now seek to attach strings to development aid by requiring recipient countries to comply with certain political conditions. These...

No observer of the African economic scene could fail to be struck by the multiplicity of economic co-operation groupings. While these represent simple institutional structures that are within the administrative capacity of the African States and offer useful training for more sophisticated...