‘Because it matters’
强调基础经济逻辑在农业政策沟通中的关键作用，通过南部非洲案例说明平价定价对粮食安全、价格风险及资源分配的重要性，并探讨其对国际谷物市场、投机和土地利用变化的启示。
Abstract Basic economic logic, which often simplifies assessments and explanations of agricultural policy issues, is vitally important in communicating with policy‐makers. Resources are limited, and there is a premium on getting decisions at least approximately right first time. Examples from southern Africa illustrate the importance of parity pricing, and its links to household food security (Lesotho), price risk, the emergence of an agricultural futures market, and its central role in allocating scarce agricultural resources (South Africa). Insights derived from an appreciation of parity pricing are relevant in other national contexts and also help explain how international grain markets operate. The parity pricing concept provides a framework for sense‐checking complicated debates relating to two issues that have been prominent in recent years; first, whether and to what extent speculation in futures markets has been a driver of agricultural price spikes, and second, how far indirect land use change (ILUC), triggered by the use of agricultural feedstocks to produce renewable energy, is a material issue. These issues are likely to be of heightened importance in the face of climate change. Each emphasises that agricultural economics matters, and that it matters that we get the economics right.