In my opinion, our delay in adapting to the global situation occurs because the food and agriculture sectors have been over-regulated for too long so there are big structural barriers, policy wise, in responding to a rapidly-changing situation. New policies or regulations that can be immediately issued can only scrape the surface, not addressing the root of the problem because they tend to be bogged down by unwieldy cross-sectoral regulations that have accumulated over the years.
For example, the import quota policy for various agricultural commodities is controlled only by certain business groups. This kind of policy is clearly detrimental to consumers in the long run, because the price determinants are not based on healthy market mechanism but are dictated by the agreement among import quota holders. However, this practice can be sustained due to the overlapping and interwoven regulations. Hence it is not easy to disentangle it without changing the structure of the policy “pyramid” that has been well established.
Time for a deregulation?
Policymakers and stakeholders in the food and agriculture sectors are used to thrive in an over-regulated environment. They should realize that the increase in the number of regulations and policies is inversely proportional to the increase in agricultural productivity and decrease in production costs. So it begs a question “Is it time for us to deregulate this sector to give more breathing room for all stakeholders involved?”
Deregulation aims to improve the structure of the policy pyramid so that the output is more targeted and equitable. Furthermore, deregulation removes redundant and counter-productive regulations. The ultimate goal is to help policymakers become more responsive and adaptive to domestic, regional and global challenges pertaining food and agriculture issues.