and relative size of industrial output; an increase in the number and nature of industrial goods; new techniques for combining labor, capital, and technology to produce goods in industry, as well as changes in the related costs; and a change in the sources supplying the economy with exist- ing and new products.8 In this process, industrial enterprises need to learn how to combine and recombine existing and new assets to establish new businesses and create products to address new markets.9 Te risks and uncertainties faced by entrepre-
neurs in producing a new good for the first time are a major determinant of an economy’s capacity to diversify into higher-productivity goods. As they increase their investments in agricultural devel- opment,10 African countries also need renewed industrialization strategies to build on the current recovery. Such strategies should target the tech- nological, institutional, and infrastructural factors that raise the level of risk and uncertainty related to entrepreneurial innovation. Ultimately, industrial- ization policies should expand a country’s arsenal of technologies and its ability to apply them to create new, higher-valued goods.11 African countries will need to rediscover ways of stimulating industrial growth and may need to look at emerging Asian countries, where public action in support of indus- trial growth has been a central element of eco- nomic development.12 Africa’s industrial policies should seek to
encourage the creation and growth of enterprises, not just in industry, but also in agribusiness and the informal sector. In the first three decades of the 21st century, demand for food in Africa is expected to grow by US$100 billion, of which one-third could be met by smallholders.13 Tis rising demand creates a real incentive and opportunity for indus- trialization based on agribusiness in the medium term. Strategies should include not only programs to raise productivity on farms, but also develop- ment of new processing and packaging technolo- gies to support product innovation and creation of competitive distribution networks and trans- port infrastructure that cross national boundaries. Te Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Develop- ment Program can be helpful here by promoting
84 FOOD POLICY TAKING SHAPE AT THE LOCAL LEVEL
evidence-based policy planning and implementa- tion and creating opportunities for strategic pub- lic-private partnerships and business-to-business alliances. Industrialization policies should also focus on the informal sector currently producing low-quality household goods. Tis sector has huge potential for enterprise growth and consolidation, as well as product improvement and innovation.14
India Enshrining the Right to Food
M. S. Swaminathan, M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation
Hunger and malnutrition have long devastated the people and progress of India. In 2011, the Indian government took a major step toward puting an end to this injustice nationwide (see Box 17). With the introduction of the National Food Security Act, India’s “ship-to-mouth” exis- tence (as the country’s previous reliance on food shipments is commonly termed) is en route to one of food security and health through the imple- mentation of the world’s largest social-protection program against hunger using homegrown food. In light of the conditions that have prevailed in
India since its independence in 1947, the National Food Security Act is nothing short of historic, as it positions institutions and individuals to radically reduce hunger and malnutrition. In the recent past, specifically during the 1960s, India received the highest amount of concessional food aid world- wide; in 1966 alone, the country imported more than 10 million tons of wheat. Today, based on the requirements of the new National Food Security Act, India is due to commit more than 60 mil- lion tons of homegrown wheat, rice, and millet at a highly subsidized price to citizens living below the poverty line. Tis is only one of the numerous ways that this new Act (once it is carefully reviewed, slightly amended, and enacted as law) promises a multi-faceted atack on hunger. Despite India’s countless efforts to increase
food and nutrition security in the past, wide- spread improvements have been minimal. A
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