both sets of policies reduced national and global economic welfare inhibited economic growth and added to inequality and poverty because no fewer than threequarters of the world s billion poorest people still depend directly or indirectly on farming for their livelihood world bank yet myriad policy measures continue to distort world food markets in many and complex ways anderson in some developing country settings they raise food prices for consumers and the earnings of farm households while in other settings they lower them however in most situations there is a mixture of winners and losers both in rural and in urban areas not least because many farm households receive some of their income from nonfarm sources