This lecture concerns topics covered in these Case Study sections: Food Production and Supply Policies and Natural Resource Management Policies.

This lecture and related cases present and discuss various policy options to assist farmers to expand production, increase incomes, improve food security, and manage production and market risks. Emphasis is on policies that mitigate the negative effects of potential or actual famines, droughts, and a series of other threats facing small farmers and pastoralists. The cases also discuss land distribution policies, research and technology policies, and policies that facilitate the production of biofuel without negative effects on food security.

The interaction between natural resource management and food production and the role of government are illustrated in the lectures. The related cases present policy options for the government and civil society to fight soil degradation along with an illustration of how government policy can best be used to deal with the very complex but common situation in which there are strong interactions between human and environmental health in the context of expanded food production. Several policy options for the allocation of scarce water supplies are also presented.