This discussion paper documents differing practices in traditional and modern food supply chains and identifies an agenda for future research. Finds that overall urban consumption is increasing, the urban food basket is shifting away from staples toward high-value products, and modern market channels (modern retail, food processing, and the food service industry) are on the rise.

Since Independence, an era marked largely by limited income and growth, the Government of India has been pursuing its policies for economic welfare with reference to a nutrition-based
subsistence norm. The concept and method of estimating poverty has come in for criticism in recent years in the context of economic policy reforms based on targeted policy interventions;

Global poverty has fallen dramatically over the last two centuries, and the fall has intensified in recent decades, raising hopes that it could be eliminated within the next 50 years.

This paper sketches out the possible evolution of world food and agriculture to 2050 in terms of the key variables (production and consumption of the main commodity groups and the implications for food and nutrition in the developing countries).