September 2009
FAC holds international
conference
on seasonal
dimensions of poverty
 Most of the world’s poor live in rural areas and are dependent on agricultural and livestock economies. For these households, poverty, hunger and illness are highly dynamic phenomena, changing dramatically over the course of a year in response to production, price and climatic cycles. When acute hunger or disease occurs, it is not typically due to conflict or natural disaster, but as result of seasonal influences - annually recurring periods when existing harvest stocks have dwindled, little food is available on the market, and prices shoot upward. This results, predictably, in cycles of poverty that can be devastating.
 These tragic cycles of poverty were discussed by more than 50 international poverty experts, including academics and practitioners as well as policymakers from both government and international agencies to tease out solutions from lessons from past development and aid programmes, current research, and good practices.
The conference highlighted the costs of overlooking seasonality in poverty reduction programmes, which can result in shrinking food stocks, rising prices, and a lack of income that in turn contributes to spikes in malnutrition, mortality, and hunger-related illnesses.
Conference participants recommend a number of actions that need to be taken to increase peoples’ agility to adapt to the increasing complexity and uncertainty linked to seasonality. Their proposals are aimed at policymakers and development practitioners:
- Training on seasonality awareness should be mandatory for development professionals, especially agriculture advisers and programme officers
- It should be standard practice to include seasonality assessments in the design phase of agriculture and rural social protection programmes
- Interventions should aim not only to raise annual production, but to stabilize intra-annual production
- Policymakers need to think creatively about how to make agriculture-based livelihoods seasonal proof, and support creative initiatives (e.g. warranty schemes or weather indexed insurance mechanisms)
- Monitoring and evaluation indicators need to track how seasonal fluctuations affect people’s well being over time.
 The conference concluded with calls for policymakers to move beyond the current debates about adaptation and re-examine the links between climate change and poverty and development; these links are easily missed by large data collection systems that average and annualise data. The conference also promoted seasonally-targeted interventions that build livelihood resilience and stabilise the effects of shocks on the poor.
The conference was organised by the Future Agricultures Consortium and the Centre for Social Protection to help put the ‘seasonality of poverty’ back in the policy agenda. Included in the conference were papers by the following FAC researchers:
Ethiopian Economic Conference: Farmer Organisations and Social Protection
On 27 June 2009, FAC researchers Amdissa Teshome and John Thompson provided an overview of FAC activities and two keynote presentations at the Ethiopian Economics Association’s (EEA) Seventh Annual Conference was held in Addis Ababa from 25-27 June. The presentations, one on Farmers’ Organisations and Agricultural Transformation in Africa and the other on Social Protection in Africa, both drawing lessons from Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi and the policy briefs on Farmer Organisations are available at:
Kenya: FAC engaged with agriculture policy makers
AGRA Conference - Role of Markets in Spurring African Green Revolution
In May, FAC's John Omiti and Andrew Dorward contributed to an international conference on priority actions for market development for African Farmers. The meeting was jointly organised by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in Nairobi, Kenya. See: AGRA / ILRI Conference.
John Omiti also represented FAC in meetings with senior government officials involved in agricultural development (e.g. Ministries of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Environment& Natural Resources, and Water & Irrigation) on issues including: structural changes in the agricultural sector, implications of global food inflation on globally-traded commodities (e.g. wheat, rice, fertiliser) and implications of the global financial crisis on Kenya’s agricultural sector.
Malawi: FAC's involvement in subsidy programme continues
FAC Malawi (FACM) renewed efforts to engage policy makers by meeting with important agriculture organisations such as: Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN), Farmers Union of Malawi (FUM), Civil Society Agricultural Network (CISANET), and the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM).
Input Subsidies
FACM continues to be involved in the evaluation of Malawi’s Agricultural Input Support Programme with Andrew Dorward and Ephraim Chirwa completing data collection that will be the basis for a FAC Working Paper on ‘access to and use of input subsidies in Malawi’.
In May, Ephraim Chirwa and Blessings Chinsinga contributed research to a workshop on input subsidies in Malawi; FACM is a member of the working committee established to develop a policy brief for the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security on the future of the agricultural input subsidy programme. This work continued with Andrew Dorward and Ephraim Chirwa making presentations to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in June 2009 on issues arising from agriculture input subsidies.
Ephraim Chirwa, Andrew Dorward and Marcella Vigneri analysed the 2004/05 Integrated Household Survey data investigating the role of seasonality in poverty modeling. This work resulted in a coauthored presentation for FAC’s conference: Seasonality Revisited in July 2009 entitled: Investigating Seasonality and Poverty: The 2004/05 Malawi Household Survey.
Field research continued on the links between food security and commercialisation with a meeting with NASFAM to explore potential research opportunities with farmers and associations that have expanded during the last agricultural season.
Ephraim Chirwa contributed to a baseline survey on Jatropha Carcus for bio-diesel as a possible additional cash crop to groups of smallholder farmers.
Also during this period, the Malawi team completed a survey on services offered by the Ministry of Agriculture in the northern region and Blessings Chinsinga carried out a monitoring study of Farmers Unions and the Malawi Economic Justice Network and Civil Society on Agriculture on the implementation of the 2009 subsidy programme. The results of the study were disseminated at a civil society platform in May.
Ethiopia: FAC encourages farmer influence on policy
In addition to leading discussions at the EEA conference in June, FAC Ethiopia’s (FACE) Amdissa Teshome continued his work regional panel discussions on the future of extension. Three regional consultations are now complete: in Amhara, Tigray and Hawassa. FACE presented research on Social Protection at a round table organised by Dfid and the Food Security Directorate. This work was later presented at an IGAD meeting on Social Protection. The final panel discussion is scheduled for Yirgalem in early October.
In this period, FACE responded to a request from the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions to comment on a Guide for Capacity Development for Farmers’ Organization.
As well, the AU/NEPAD meeting of experts of agriculture and land invited FACE to attend as a follow up to the March CAADP Partnership Platform meeting in Pretoria to which Amdissa Teshome attended.
Policy Processes and Politics: FAC contributes to Ministry studies
FAC continues to conduct field work and research for the Ministries of Agriculture district studies in Malawi and Kenya. Blessings Chinsinga completed field work in Malawi’s Rumphi district and Gem Argwings-Kodhek completed research in Eldoret West district. Progress with this field work is advanced and feedback workshops at the district and national levels in both countries are expected in September/October.
Climate Change Adaptation Policy Processes
Two of FAC members (Blessings Chinsinga and Lydia Ndirangu) are involved in collaborative research on "Linking African Researchers with Adaptation Policy Spaces". This project aims to increase the ability of partners in Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) programme in East Africa to understand climate change adaptation policy processes at local and national scales.
Drawing on the experience of the Participatory Adaptation Research (PAR) carried out under the CCAA programme, the project is conducting policy focused case studies aimed at increasing research-policy linkages of adaptation research in participating countries (Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania).
Growth and Social Protection: experts' conference preparations
In May 2009, Amdissa Teshome and Stephen Devereux delivered research in Addis Ababa on ‘Options for Social Protection in Ethiopia’ to two state ministers from the Ministry of Agriculture (MoARD) and Ministry of Labour and Social Assistance (MoLSA), debating approaches to social protection in Ethiopia for the first time. Rachel Sabates-Wheeler and Stephen Devereux wrote an article entitled ‘Cash Transfers and High Food Prices: Explaining outcomes on Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme’, which draws on findings from the PSNP and will shortly be published as a FAC Working Paper.
Andrew Dorward also prepared a paper for this conference on Conceptualising seasonal financial market failures in rural household models.
Science, technology and innovation: theme launched with new projects
The launch of this new FAC theme began with Hannigton Odame completing a scoping study that helped locate the STI theme in wider science policy debates across the three FAC countries and Ghana. Further, a workshop on the theme’s Pastoral Innovation System Project was held in Ethiopia in March, and another workshop was planned for the Political Economy of Cereal Seed Systems project in July. Finally, initial discussions began on collaborating with the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) to support regional consultations and an electronic forum on the future of agricultural R&D in Africa as part of the Global Conferences on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD) process.
Project 1: The political economy of cereal seed systems
FAC planned the research project and recruited a research team who are now exploring the political economy of cereal seed systems across five countries – Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi, Ghana and Zimbabwe. Each country has a very different history of research and development in this area; in each setting the importance of the public or the private sector differs, with different actors and interests involved; each country has a different reliance on ‘modern’ hybrid (or sometimes biotech) varieties and associated R&D and supply systems; and each country has a different form and extent of independent informal sector, involving networks of farmer experimenters and seed bulkers and suppliers.
Given the political reverberations of the ‘food crisis’ of 2007-08, this allows for a timely analysis of the implications of the policy processes shaping the breeding, production, marketing and distribution of cereal seeds. Whether grown for local subsistence or traded commercially, the significance of cereal crops to national politics (and so arguments about food security and sovereignty), commercial interests and local livelihoods – is likely to be profound.
Project 2: Pastoral Innovation Systems
This project is generating debate about pastoral innovation options, focusing on pastoral areas of Kenya and Ethiopia, linking insights from pastoral areas to the wider debate about science and technology in Africa.In March, over 50 pastoralists from across southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya from a dozen  ethnic groups gathered in the Borana lowlands to debate key pastoral development issues. This week-long event was hosted by the Oromia Pastoralist Association and organised by the Democracy, Growth and Peace for Pastoralists project of the Pastoralist Communication Initiative. The Future Agricultures Consortium was represented by Ian Scoones of IDS and Andrew Adwera of African Centre for Technology Studies based in Kenya. A new FAC publication documenting the results of this workshop is now available: Pastoral Innovation Systems - Perspectives from Ethiopia and Kenya.
This is being widely disseminated in the region through PCI and FAC-Ethiopia and Kenya.
Farmer First Revisited: new book is launched in London and Wageningen
The book Farmer First Revisited: Innovation for Agricultural Research and Development (edited by Ian Scoones and John Thompson) was officially published in April 2009 by Practical Action Publishing. A pre-launch event was held in Nairobi in February during the week of the Future Agricultures Annual Review and Planning Meeting. Two official launch events were held in London and Wageningen.
In London the launch was hosted by the All Parliamentary Group on Aid and Development and a packed room heard from Robert Chambers (IDS), Patrick Mulvany (Practical Action and UK Food Group) and Ian Scoones. In Wageningen the launch was held as part of the CGIAR Science Council Science Forum. Panelists included Dr Mark Holderness, Executive Secretary of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research, Professor Niels Röling, Emeritus Professor of Communication and Innovation Studies at Wageningen UR, Ms Chesha Wettasinha, Agriculturalist, EcoCulture, ETC Foundation. It was chaired by Dr Hansjörg Neun, Director of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU. FAC's Farmer First web site
Launch reports can be found at:
London: www.ids.ac.uk/go/news/putting-farmers-first-to-transform-agriculture
Wageningen: www.ids.ac.uk/go/news/transforming-agriculture-through-farmer-centred-innovationation
Commercialisations: field work continues
This theme included two ongoing activities in this period: carrying out a field study in Kenya and reviewing the literature on interactions between food security and commercialisation, looking at the evidence produced since the seminal work of Von Braun & Kennedy (1994). In Ethiopia, FAC made field visits to several locations to identify an area suitable for field studies; Lume District was selected because: changes in smallholder farming were significant, smallholders were likely to produce higher value crops for the urban market, thereby intensifying and commercialising their farming, and work in the district was feasible. An outline of the study for that area was prepared, discussed and revised.
GCARD consultations: FAC supports FARA's outreach in Africa 
FAC is conducting consultations with farmer organisations and farmers themselves on priorities for future agricultural research as input into FARA's Africa consultations for GCARD. Three focus groups with farmers and their organisations are being developed for Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi in October 2009. Additionally, this month FAC sent an email alert to its contact database (e.g. researchers, policy makers, farmer organisations, etc.) encouraging them to communicate their thoughts about research directions via the FARA consultation portal (http://dgroups.org/groups/fara-net/GCARD-Africa).
As well, FAC is featuring the consultations and GCARD site on a dedicated web page to promote the GCARD consultation process and linking to FARA’s platform for GCARD consultation.
FAC will bring analysis of its findings to the Africa GCARD stakeholders meeting planned for November in Accra and to Montpellier in 2010 for presentation at GCARD.
African Green Revolution: sub-regional farmers' meetings on a uniquely Green Revolutions for Africa
In  light of the considerable interest generated by the "Toward and African Green Revolution" conference and seminars, FAC in partnership with the Salzburg Global Seminar, is creating a forum for farmers to contribute to extending the influence of conference discussions through sub-regional meetings to "field-test the African Green Revolution paradigm". In October, the conference recommendations will be shared through these sub-regional meetings in Africa to further test, refine and contextual them, working at increasing levels of detail and enabling the participation of more national and local actors.
Each meeting will involve convening 30-40 farmers and farmer organisation representatives to discuss post-Salzburg actions and include reflection on GCARD processes on innovation and research directions for agriculture.
Big Farm / Small Farm e-debate: how to respond to the food crisis?
Recently, there have been many reports of private companies in the North
and state corporations in the South reacting to the opportunity and threat of
higher food prices by planning to acquire land in Africa, South-east Asia, Brazil
and Central Asia to produce food. The most startling of these announcements
is that of the Deadwood Corporation of the Republic of Korea that revealed that it
was acquiring the rights to farm no less than 1.3 million hectares of Madagascar,
a position from which the company and the government have now backed
away from following a storm of local and international protest.
In May 2009, the Future Agricultures
Consortium welcomed a range of
opinions in regard to this debate launched by FAC member Steve Wiggins in response to debates on the scale of farming and a number of recent articles including one by Professor Paul Collier, author of ‘The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be Done About It’.
See the FAC e-debate here and Steve Wiggins' summary report entitled: Big farms or small farms:
how to respond to the
food crisis?
New FAC web site launch in November:
interactive, organised, and built for the future
 The FAC web site is undergoing revision and redesign. Already a pilot version of the new site is being tested at http://project.future-agricultures.org The new site is built on the open source platform Jolla! and is expected to be officially launched in November. The site will feature a document management system, that includes more than 200 FAC documents, presentations, images, reviews, etc.
New design for FAC publications: the collected works in a new format
 All FAC policy briefs, working papers, presentations and other research work are being professionally redesigned and will be available in late October in a new A5 format. The body of FAC policy briefs, now numbering 35, will be available separately or in a complete collection. The collection is also being distributed to policymakers and research libraries in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Malawi.
All FAC documents are available to download for free via this link: publications or by clicking on the links below:
Policy Briefs
Ethiopia
Kenya
Malawi
Thematic Papers
Policy Processes
Agricultural Commercialisation
Growth and Social Protection
Special Projects
Research Papers and Reports
Working / Discussion Papers
Presentations
Other relevant, recent publications
by FAC researchers
- ‘Debating Social Protection’, IDS Bulletin vol. 38, no. 3, (2007), special issue edited by Stephen Devereux and Rachel Sabates-Wheeler.
- ‘Vulnerability and Social Protection in Malawi’, IDS Discussion Paper 387 (2007), by Stephen Devereux, Bob Baulch, Ian McAuslan, Alexander Phiri and Rachel Sabates-Wheeler.
Funding agriculture: Not ‘how much?’ but ‘what for?’, ODI Opinion 86 (2007), October, by Lidia Cabral
- ‘Bottom-up Policy Process: An Agenda for Future Agricultures in Ethiopia’ The Ethiopian Herald (English), Saturday 23 June 2007, by Amdissa Teshome (123 KB)
Other research
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