Going to be a collectively huge injection of capital (mostly from governments) into agriculture all around the world from this point forward. But anyone with experience knows that this kind of intervention simply leads to the destruction of the free market and allows profiteering at the expense of the subsidy provider (ie the Govt). For example a fertilizer subsidy will simply allow fertilizer manufacturers to increase prices since farmers will increase use with cheaper fertilizer. But this should result in increased food output so will be worth the cash injection since food security is improved, hence is in the national interest.
The point being, a thinking man should put money where subsidy based equity is likely to be fed to agriculture. Most likely I think this will be through fertilizer subsidies. The big multinational fertilizer producing outfits will be strong performers.
In Australia there will be government money directed towards developing the agricultural potential of the water rich north.
----------------------------------------------- Mexico farmers to get record $16 bln cash boost 20 Feb 2007 04:38:31 GMT
MEXICO CITY, Feb 19 - Mexico's government will pump a record $16 billion into the countryside this year to help farmers cope when trade barriers with the United States and Canada are removed completely in 2008.
Conservative President Felipe Calderon said on Monday the most money ever to be spent on the countryside in a year would go to producers of corn, beans, sugar and milk, many of whom will struggle to compete when trade barriers are lifted.
Mexico, the United States and Canada have been gradually lifting trade barriers since 1994 through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), under which trade between the three neighbors is due to be completely free in 2008.
Poor farmers, particularly those growing Mexican staples of corn and beans on small, inefficient plots worry they will not be able to compete with heavily subsidized, high-yield U.S. farms when barriers come down.
Large swathes of Mexico's countryside are emptying as bankrupt farmers emigrate illegally to the United States in search of better-paying work.
"Mexico's countryside suffers the worst poverty and backwardness in our country," Calderon said in a speech presenting the program.
"We must act firmly and with conviction to guarantee our farmers what they need to move forward by giving them opportunities that will stop them having to emigrate," he said.
Calderon said the money, a 15 percent increase on what was spent on the countryside last year, would go to farmers in the form of rural aid and improvements in infrastructure.
A firm believer in free markets, Calderon took power in December after a razor-thin election victory over leftist rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who said he would freeze plans to eliminate all trade barriers by 2008.
