Person:
Morris, Michael
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Agricultural development,
Agricultural policy,
Agricultural innovation systems
Degrees
Departments
Global Practice on Agriculture
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Michael Morris is a Lead Agricultural Economist with the World Bank, where he manages lending operations, conducts research, and provides technical assistance. He has co-authored World Bank flagship publications on fertilizer policy, agricultural commercialization, and drylands development, and he contributed to the 2008 World Development Report Agriculture for Development. His areas of expertise include agricultural policy, farm-level productivity enhancement, marketing systems and value chain development, agricultural research and technology transfer, institutional strengthening, and capacity building. Prior to joining the World Bank in 2004, he served for three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone; conducted dissertation research for two years in Senegal; and spent 16 years in Mexico, Thailand, and Washington with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
Publication Search Results
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Publication
Future Foodscapes: Re-imagining Agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-11)Agriculture and food systems in Latin America and the Caribbean Region (LAC) are rightfully recognized as among the most successful on the planet: they have fed a fast-growing population, facilitated economic development, enabled urbanization, generated substantial exports, and helped drive down global hunger and poverty. Yet despite these significant contributions, the public image of the region’s agriculture and food systems as dynamic, productive, and efficient reflectsonly part of a more complicated reality. The impressive achievements have come at the expense of significant environmental and health costs. LAC agriculture uses over one-third of the region’s land area, consumes nearly three-quarters of the region’s fresh water resources, and generates almost one-half of the region’s greenhouse gas emissions. And despite the consistent food production surpluses, millions of people in LAC regularly go hungry or suffer from malnutrition and related diseases. In short, the region’s successes in feeding the population and exporting food to the rest of the world are exacting high costs on people and on the environment.