High grain prices currently are creating profit opportunities and risk management challenges in major exporting countries, while exacerbating concerns about food security for low-income consumers and countries. There are challenges for sustaining the natural resource base while meeting future food demands. Land and water scarcity in many regions call for efficient institutional arrangements. Changing diets in rapidly developing coutnries increase demand for a broader range of food choices. Increasing market segmentation in response to new demand requires renewed attention to demand analysis.
Rapid urbanization requires consideration of rural-urban linkages.
Rapid changes in technology, both biological and informational, present new opportunities for managing agricultural production and marketing. Evolving agricultural policies create a need for new institutional arrangements at local, national, and international levels. Market and policy changes require attention to new concepts, program design, and approaches to policy analysis. Increasing off-farm activity providing production inputs and adding value to agricultural products will continue to broaden what has traditionally been referred to as agriculture. Rapid communications and world econmic linkages create new dynamics in agricutlure that are increasingly complex to analyze.