Rapid expansion of employment in low-income countries is one of the biggest challenges of development. The growth in labor supply in developing countries will remain large for a long time to come. Incomes of the poor in rural areas will depend more and more on productive off-farm work, and in the rapidly expanding urban areas, food security will depend largely on jobs and wage rates.

The race between population and food is a classic theme, yet the outcome of this contest is of enduring contemporary interest. Interestingly, the two variables that are set opposite one another in the race are fundamentally different in character. Population is primarily a stock concept that rises monotonically (when births exceed deaths), whereas food production is overwhelmingly a flow variable that exhibits substantial year-to-year fluctuations. These latter fluctuations, in turn, cause significant economic and nutritional consequences at the household level. The changes are especially important for the poor, even beyond the consequences caused by trend levels of food consumption per capita. In addition, amplifications of price and production variability often produce compensating changes in national food policies. If countries seek to stabilize domestic grain prices, the unintended effect of these actions is further destabilization of global grain markets.

This book, based on fieldwork carried out by a team of American and Indonesian economists, investigates Indonesia's potential for maize production. It integrates 3 economic approaches: (1) the commodity systems approach, which traces the technical and market links from input supplier to producer, processor and consumer; (2) the macro-trade approach, which analyses the role of the commodity in generating domestic value-added and foreign exchange; and (3) the food policy approach, which analyses the efficiency of commodity systems and the distribution of their benefits in order to evaluate potential public investments and policy interventions. The conclusion reached is that Indonesia has the potential to expand its maize production by: (1) efficiency in the marketing system and (2) policies encouraging investment in storage and drying facilities.