population witnessed food shortages causing high cereal prices. The food price spike led to the so-called “Bread Revolutions” resulting in a number of causalities (Nasim, 2012). In this regard, the focus of this article will be limited to agricultural foreign investments abroad. The Gulf Arab countries witnessed a "blowing up food gap" in the year of 1970s due to population growth and higher per capita income in the wake of the oil price bonanza. To understand the Gulf ' Countries’ concern about food security one needs to take a detailed look at its food import dependence and how it has developed historically. This food gap and the import dependence that came with it were regarded as a strategic liability. The Gulf countries are` highly politicized and strategic nature of global food markets. This nourished an outspoken wish for self sufficiency and reduced reliance on imports (David, 1999).
Alan Richard wrote “the Initial plans to develop Sudan as a bread basket for the Gulf fell by the way side and especially Saudi Arabia embarked on an ambitious course of "prudent self-sufficiency", as it put it in its five years plans. In the 1970s it started a massive expansion of subsidized agriculture, especially wheat and livestock production, which relied heavily on non-renewable reserves of water due to its considerable agricultural sector, but it will rapidly catch up once its wheat production has been phased out GCC countries have tried to gain direct access to agricultural
In the last decades the Arabian Gulf countries has undergone tremendous changes at all levels. Write a 10 up to 15 pages assay to highlights the major changes; explain what the drivers behind these changes were, show how these changes occurred and how they impacted societies. Conclude by giving a personal opinion on how these changes were conducted.
of either the capitalist block, led by USA or the Socialist block led by the former USSR. In that global division of Africa and Arab Countries, both Ethiopia and the Gulf Arab Countries was strong adherent with the capitalist block. Both enjoyed American and West European political patronage and protection. Thus imperial Ethiopia and the Gulf Arab Countries were partners against the spread of socialist and radical political ideas in this part of the world (Hoynes 1993).
Yemen, a newly formed country in western Asia, located at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, is among one of the most incredibly fragile and sensitive states in the Middle East. In addition to being the second largest country in the peninsula, Yemen is one of the poorest Arab countries, with a GDP of 27.32 billion. For comparison, Saudi Arabia Yemen’s northern neighbor has a GDP of 646.4 billion. Within Yemen, it has become apparent that the country has little to no oil and natural resources to export out, which makes Yemen’s GDP much lower than the rest of the world. Since Yemen has little to no oil, their exportations are solely food and livestock; more specifically wheat. Along with being extremely poor, Yemen is listed as the
In light of this, I would like to explore research frontiers in the area of the challenges of managing food and farm businesses in a global setting of the 21st Century. In our society beleaguered by agricultural problems that ranges from economic to environmental problems such as weather and global warming, issues concerning trade and management of agricultural enterprises has been the topic of debate for the past decade. Many developing/poor countries who earn their living from agriculture continuously suffer from poverty and hunger as a result of the increasing pressures on the world's resource base. Policymakers are gripped with finding solutions to problems such as structural and technological constraints, inappropriate domestic policies and an unfavourable external economic environment. As a result, the growth of these economies has been slow, undernourishment has been increasing and the marginalization of these countries in the global economy has continued. This trend has created problems for developing countries over the past decade. Economic and financial
Rentier states are states that typically produce a resource that is highly demanded internationally. In most cases, and for the specific purpose of this review, the resource is oil. While not every rentier state is confined to the Middle East, the more interesting cases are found in this region. There is a division of success and failure when it comes to state building and maintaining legitimacy in the regime, and only a few states are considered successes. In those that fail, the regime’s dependency on an outsourced income hurts the state more often than it helps.
WHAT went wrong with the Arab world? Why is it so stuck behind the times? It is not an automatically unlucky region. Fatly endowed with oil, and with its people sharing a rich cultural, religious and linguistic heritage, it is faced neither with endemic poverty nor with ethnic conflict. It shook off its colonial or neo-colonial legacies long ago, and the countries that had
When peace came, the military’s demand of agricultural products declined, at the same time the supply of agricultural products also back to the world market in Europe. As a result the price of agricultural products declined sharply. Farmers’ debt is very sharp because the demand for U.S. agricultural products maintained at a high level for several years. Many farmers borrowed heavily to expand area and take advantage of the agricultural products. It is difficult for borrowed heavily farmers to accepted a lower price of products. The agriculture of these problems has increased economic depression and social
Food is the foundation of human live and people cannot survive without it. Food security is a vital issue facing the governments around the world. However, food shortage is becoming increasingly severe in this day and age. There are several reasons which led to the universal food shortage and they are interconnected to each other. Increasing world population, extreme weather and the wide spread use of biofuels are the main causes of worldwide shortage of food. These factors lead to food price rises rapidly.
Iran, Saudi Arabia, United States and Russia have characteristics in common, all these four nations have been facing hostile conditions, the population living in poverty because of government conflicts and ongoing wars against each other. At some point national safety was interrupted by terrorist attacks in the U.S, turning the most powerful nation into safety vulnerability, facing social un-comfortability and security concerns, Russia and the national safety strategy created to protect the national interest. Politics, economy, culture, easiness of doing business and so on are important topics to consider for any multinational decision, over Middle Eastern countries. Iran and Saudi Arabia international investment strategies, political risk, and sociopolitical concerns are some of the topics that bring relevance in the last decade. Oil is in which Iran and Saudi Arabia economy is based. Iran has had faced economic sanctions because of the pretended support of terrorism. Forward in struggling situations, Middle East countries has limited economic relationships with U.S. Members of the government in the Middle East are the concern to increase investment and grow the level of opportunities, delivering strategies to promote investors to set operations in Middle Eastern nations as Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The social effects that terrorism caused is fear and disconcert in government.
The farmers living in the southern had a 30 percent collapse of farming goods. In the 1990’s,USA and Europe retained subsides. Two million mexican campesinos lost their farms due to subsidized corn from the north. Along with this about thirty million people had to face losing their land. The U.S. had to also face competition in dealing with Mexico’s and Canada’s imports.The Power of agribusiness began to raise and companies were using foreign stocks to sell transported
In addition, it has been mentioned by Aleqt report (2207) that the Gulf States are aspirated by many of the foreign capital, many of international and western banks plan and keen to enter this market in order to finance the growth economic and participate in infrastructure. Gulf states will spend billions of dollars in the coming years. In contrast, in the case of nuclear programs, the development of nuclear weapons didn’t affect the attraction of investments in South Korea and other countries. Thus, The Iran’s nuclear programs will not affect Gulf States in
Saudi Arabia is the largest oil and natural gas producer of oil in the world attributed to its vast reservoir (Jasimuddin, 2001). The economic growth seen over the years has been dependent upon exploration and production of oil for local and international market (Jasimuddin, 2001). Oil in Saudi contributes up to 40% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and an approximate 80% of its annual revenue (Elachola & Memish, 2016). Largely, the exports that emanate from Saudi Arabia to the tune of 90% are from oil and natural gas products (2016). The country has invested a lot of capital in the exploration and production of oil over the years (2016). Saudi Arabia has enjoyed a competitive advantage over the rest of oil producers for the better part of the 21st century(2016). The world is experiencing a fall in the oil prices now due to a shift in the demand and supply curve. Consequently, Saudi Arabia is beginning to lose its competitive age due to the continuous fall in oil prices (2016). Currently, the world’s oil price is at $42 per barrel and has been fluctuating unpredictably to as low as $30 per barrel (2016). Saudi Arabia is mostly dependent on oil and the continuous fall in prices puts it at risk of economic crisis(2016). Subsequently as the strategy advisor and policy commissioner, by using Porter’s Model of Diamond of National Advantage, it will give the impact oil prices have on the country.
The previous part of the essay mostly focused on internal political dimensions of instability and conflict in the Arab part of the Gulf. Other factors of instability in the Gulf belong to the systemic level of the Gulf subregion. One of these factors is the existing regional security architecture, which fosters dependence on the U.S. to provide means of defence and deterrence.
Despite it being a fiscal burden, the Egyptian state was able to maintain its food subsidy system for more than 50 years. An impressive feat, but it came with its own set of challenges. The food subsidy system is broken up in two types: ration cards and subsidized bread. Ration cards allow lower income families to buy an allocated amount of subsidized staple foods (like sugar and cooking oil) once a month. Bread subsidies, on the other hand, are universal. This means anyone in Egypt is entitled to buying cheap “baladi” (local) bread from government-sponsored bakeries every single day. Given this universality, changes in bread prices carry repercussions that are felt by all sectors of the population. For this reason, this section will mainly focus on subsidized bread.
Several different factors contributed to the increase in global food prices in 2011 and 2012, which stimulated a number of international responses. Global food prices have increased markedly since the early 2000s, reaching a historical peak in February 2011. Monthly changes in global prices for a given commodity are recorded using the Food Price Index by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The FAO Food Price Index comprises of the average price indices for cereals, oils and fats, fairy products, meat and sugar, and considers the price at which these food groups are sold and purchased globally. The Food Price Index increased from 89.6 in 2002 to 229.9 in 2011, an increase of more than 150%. Global food prices continued to escalate in 2012 when the Food Price Index grew by 8% between December 2011 and March 2012, just falling short of the February 2011 historical peak1. As food prices increased in 2011 and 2012, over 40 million people were forced into poverty2. This paper examines several factors which contributed to the global increase in food prices, including increased oil prices, increased biofuel production, adverse weather conditions and increased food demand. The responses to the spike in global food prices in 2011 and 2012 will also be discussed. The paper will also discuss some of the suggested responses to the increased food prices identified by the international community, such as increased agricultural production, productivity and reserves