FOOD SELF-SUFFICIENCY AND INTERNATIONAL GRAIN TRADE

Many economists view international trade as a means for economic growth and development. Others, however believe that trade has detrimental effects on the economies of less developed countries (LDC's), and suggest that emphasis on food self-sufficiency is preferable to reliance on international grain trade.

A comparison between trade and food self-sufficiency policies is carried out in this study. Problems of balance of payments, quantity variability, and price instability were examined. The results show that 90 percent of 68 LDC's did not spend more than 20 percent of export earnings on food grain imports during the 1970-80 period. For the quantity variability and price instability tests, it was found that the majority of the largest importers would have experienced higher variability under self-sufficiency programs than they had depended on world grain markets during the 1961-80 period. These results suggest that, as far as these problems are concerned, most LDC's could achieve higher rates of development by following a policy of reliance on international grain trade rather than policies which emphasized food self-sufficiency.

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