Globalization and the Developing Countries

The globalization process and the internal policy reforms that the developing countries have implemented during the past decade have changed the relative prices of practically all their inputs and outputs. Agricultural producers have therefore been forced to change the structure and methods of their production. The objective of this book is to review the impact of globalization on a number of issues. These include the effects of global trading rules and regulation, the removal of trade barriers and the elimination of many country-specific and commodity-specific trade agreements, on the economies of developing countries in general and their agricultural sectors in particular. Key issues highlighted include: the high risk or producing traditional commodity crops for export; the removal of many non-tariff trade barriers, which threaten the livelihoods of many farmers; the exposure of developing country economies to increased competition from cheap imports; the potential gains from access to global markets for non-traditional crops. The book includes 16 chapters, some focusing on broad issues such as intellectural property rights and food safety standards, other providing country or regional case studies (e.g. China, India, Jordon, Ghana, Kenya, the Caribbean and Nigeria).