Inter-American Development Bank
facebook
twitter
youtube
linkedin
instagram
Abierto al públicoBeyond BordersCaribbean Development TrendsCiudades SosteniblesEnergía para el FuturoEnfoque EducaciónFactor TrabajoGente SaludableGestión fiscalGobernarteIdeas MatterIdeas que CuentanIdeaçãoImpactoIndustrias CreativasLa Maleta AbiertaMoviliblogMás Allá de las FronterasNegocios SosteniblesPrimeros PasosPuntos sobre la iSeguridad CiudadanaSostenibilidadVolvamos a la fuente¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?Home
Citizen Security and Justice Creative Industries Development Effectiveness Early Childhood Development Education Energy Envirnment. Climate Change and Safeguards Fiscal policy and management Gender and Diversity Health Labor and pensions Open Knowledge Public management Science, Technology and Innovation  Trade and Regional Integration Urban Development and Housing Water and Sanitation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Caribbean Development Trends

  • HOME
  • CATEGORIES
    • Agribusiness
    • Antigua and Barbuda
    • Barbados
    • BehaviorChange
    • Belize
    • Bermuda
    • biodiversity
    • Blockchain
    • Caribbean
    • Caribbean Culture and Media
    • Climate Change
    • Creative Economy
    • Crime Prevention and Citizen Security
    • Data and Knowledge
    • De-risking
    • Dominica
    • Dutch
    • Early Childhood Development
    • Economic Growth
    • Education Policy
    • energy
    • entrepreneurship
    • Environmental and Climate Change
    • Events
    • Extractives
    • Finance
    • Fiscal Rules
    • gender
    • Governance and Regulatory Policy Reforms
    • Grenada
    • Guyana
    • Haiti
    • Health
    • Health Policy
    • Hurricane
    • Hurricane Irma
    • infrastructure
    • Innovation and change
    • Intellectual Property
    • IWD
    • Jamaica
    • JumpCaribbean
    • Labor
    • Labour Markets
    • MOOC
    • Music
    • Natural Disasters
    • Nurturing Institutions
    • OECS
    • Podcast
    • Poverty
    • Private Sector and Entrepreneurship
    • Saint Kitts and Nevis
    • Saint Lucia
    • Saint Vincent and Grenadines
    • skills
    • Sports for Development
    • Suriname
    • Technology
    • The Bahamas
    • The Blue Economy
    • Transportation
    • Tourism
    • Trinidad and Tobago
    • Uncategorized
    • VAWG
    • Webinar
    • women
    • Women for Change
    • youth
  • Country Offices
    • Bahamas
    • Barbados
    • Guyana
    • Jamaica
    • Suriname
    • Trinidad and Tobago
  • Press Releases
    • Bahamas
    • Barbados
    • Guyana
    • Jamaica
    • Suriname
    • Trinidad and Tobago
  • Authors

IDB Agrimonitor

January 5, 2015 by Rachel Boyce Leave a Comment


 

Did you know that Jamaicans pay higher prices for farm produce than any other Caribbean country or that Colombia spends the most on agricultural research as a percentage of the national budget?

Researchers and policymakers now have these facts and more at their fingertips through an agricultural database released by the Inter-American Development Bank last spring. The database, called the IDB Agrimonitor, is the first policy-oriented tool for the Latin America and Caribbean region. Efforts to document the impact of agricultural policies on trade relations and government expenditures have been around since the 1940s, when the dawn of refrigeration and the expansion of infrastructure prompted a massive increase in the distribution of agricultural goods that could now travel further afield. By the 1960s, the global economy had expanded so much that researchers began developing “protection theories” to evaluate the impact of tariffs.

trees

While working as an economist for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Professor. Timothy Josling began applying a concept he titled the “producer subsidy equivalent” or “producer support estimate” (PSE) as a way of measuring agricultural competitiveness. With this indicator, governments can measure the annual monetary value of transfers from consumers and taxpayers to agricultural producers, along with spending on services and infrastructure. Today, Josling’s PSE concept has never been so important with important issues such as climate change, food security and regional integration on the agenda.  Together with the IDB, Professor Josling has helped to modernize the use of this indicator through the IDB Agrimonitor.

The historic account of Agricultural Policies is a deep one, influenced by global events; and one which its ancestry may deserve a blog on its own. What matters most, is that researchers and institutions including the IDB have over the years committed to calculating the indicators of agricultural support and the use of these calculations for measuring policy has become invaluable.

For example, did you know that the producer price for Bananas in Ecuador in 2012 was $292, almost twice the price received in 2006 ($150/tonne)? The IDB Agrimonitor can also tell you how this price compares to other countries and the world reference price. There are many other questions to be answered; questions from payments to subsidies and from commodity transfers to support estimates. After all, doesn’t every taxpayer want to know how their hard-earned money is being spent?

This new database makes “agro-knowledge” easy for users. There is no need to search through 100-page reports, or rip the appendix from a study. Best of all, there is no need to send constant reminders to the Ministries or the Central Bank just to know the value of milk production and whether it is soy, goat or cow milk. The truth is, we don’t have that information either but we do have what you are REALLY looking for. The IDB Agrimonitor also goes beyond agriculture and delves into other special topics such as climate change, food security, market integration and agriculture competitiveness.

While the IDB embraces traditional studies and research, the bank is excited to find out how an online data tool can further agricultural information gathering and policymaking. The information is no longer out there, it is right here!! We have done your homework… so go ahead, start searching!!


Filed Under: Innovation & Change Tagged With: agricultural policy, agricultural research, agriculture, Agrimonitor, agro-knowledge, caribbean, Climate change, environmental protection, FAO, food security, market integration, producer subsidy, producer support, trade relations, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Subscribe

Search

Caribbean Dev Trends

We provide unique and timely insights on the Caribbean and its political, social, and economic development. At the IDB, we strive to improve lives in the Caribbean by creating vibrant and resilient economies where people are safe, productive and happy.

Similar posts

  • AGRIMONITOR: Learn the effects of agricultural policy, food security and climate change in Latin America and the Caribbean!
  • How does open data help the agricultural sector?
  • Suriname weaving its Caribbean Food Basket
  • Agricultural Policies in the Caribbean
  • Cultivating a Culture of Agriculture: Are Caribbean youth up to the challenge?

Footer

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
youtube
youtube

    Blog posts written by Bank employees:

    Copyright © Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB"). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives. (CC-IGO 3.0 BY-NC-ND) license and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC- IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.


    For blogs written by external parties:

    For questions concerning copyright for authors that are not IADB employees please complete the contact form for this blog.

    The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDB, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

    Attribution: in addition to giving attribution to the respective author and copyright owner, as appropriate, we would appreciate if you could include a link that remits back the IDB Blogs website.



    Privacy Policy

    Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

    Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

    Aviso Legal

    Las opiniones expresadas en estos blogs son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, sus directivas, la Asamblea de Gobernadores o sus países miembros.

    facebook
    twitter
    youtube