This book presents technical research results that encompass a wide range of subjects drawn from research on policy-relevant aspects of agriculture, poverty, nutrition, and the environment. It contains materials that IFPRI believes is of key interest to those involved in addressing emerging food and development problems.

In this volume, which reports the results of IFPRI’s projection work in far more detail than previous publications, the authors give their best assessment of what the future food situation will be in the baseline scenario. Then they examine the effects of changes in policy, technology, and life styles through two sets of alternative scenarios. One set explores changes at the global level; the other is regional, focusing on changes specific to Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

These scenarios point to one inescapable conclusion: even rather small changes in agricultural and development policies and investments, made in both developed and developing countries, can have wide-reaching effects on the number of poor and undernourished people around the world. The policy choices we make now will determine to a considerable degree what kind of lives the next generation will lead.