Feeding the planet: the role of greater farm productivity and trade

Abstract

Rapid trade-led economic growth in emerging economies is shifting the global economic and industrial centres of gravity away from the north Atlantic, raising the importance of Asia in world trade, and altering the commodity structure of Asia’s trade. This is a process that began with Japan’s re-emergence in the 1950s. Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan joined the process from the late 1960s, then some Southeast Asian countries. The much more populous China and India are now its drivers.