If you're following our Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa conference, take a look at this series of seven FAC working papers on democracy, politics and agriculture.

As well as an overview, the papers span Mozambique, Rwanda, Malawi, Tanzania, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia. They look at what determines agricultural policy in different countries - exploring how voters, civil society, donors and business interact with governments in policy processes related to farming and food.

• Democratisation and the Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa FAC Working Paper 43
• From negligence to populism: an analysis of Mozambique’s agricultural political economy FAC Working Paper 34
• Policy for agriculture and horticulture in Rwanda FAC Working Paper 38
• The political economy of agricultural policy processes in Malawi: a case study of the Fertilizer Subsidy Programme FAC Working Paper 39
• Politics, patronage and projects: the political economy of agricultural policy in Tanzania FAC Working Paper 40
• L’Économie Politique du Succès de la Filière Coton au Burkina Faso: Entre Paradoxes et Incertitudes FAC Working Paper 41 (in French)
• The Political Economy of Agricultural Extension in Ethiopia: Economic Growth and Political Control FAC Working Paper 42

To find out more about the conference, view and download papers and see the programme, visit the PEAPA conference website.

Tags: #agpolitics

Politics and agriculture are not strange bedfellows, said Adebayo Olukoshi (International IDEA) in his opening keynote speech at the Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa conference yesterday. The recent history of politics and land includes some dark moments, as well as some more positive ones: this year is the centenary of the 1913 Land Act in South Africa, but it is also 10 years since the Maputo declaration, which saw African governments come together to commit to greater agricultural development. Tags: #agpolitics

The World Bank, HarvestPlus and IFPRI are sponsoring Invited Panel sessions during the upcoming 4th Conference of the African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE) in Tunisia under various selected themes. Those interested in presenting a paper(s) for any of these invited panel sessions should submit their papers to the Programs Committee. Successful applicants will be sponsored to attend the conference.

The Second call for papers is now on-going. Applicants are requested to submit FULL papers. Abstracts are not accepted at this stage.

Further details can be found by visiting the conference website at www.icaaae.org and the AAAE email address is: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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By James Sumberg, Martha Awo, John Thompson, George T-M Kwadzo and Dela-Dem Doe Fiankor, Researchers, STEPS Centre Livestock project

Agricultural policy makers in Africa are now being dragged into the era of ‘evidence-based’ policy (EBP) making. But the quality and availability of evidence in some countries - and debates about what even counts as evidence - create some interesting challenges.

Tags: livestock

The African Union has announced plans to set up a new Food Safety Authority and a ‘Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed’ (RASFF). It is hosting a regional workshop on 29-30 October in Kigali, Rwanda, on the subject.

• Announcement: Continental Workshop on the establishment of Food Safety Authority at African Union and of a RASFF

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The global rush for land is rarely out of the headlines for long. But one of the untold stories of the global land grab is the quest to capture another vital resource: water.

As land is grabbed and earmarked for development, this often has implications for the water nearby. But access to water is also a key motivation for some major land grabs.

Tags: landgrabs

Around the Rio+20 conference, the Institute of Development Studies is compiling a 'collection of blogs' about hunger, nutrition and climate adaptation. It focuses on how these issues relate to Malawi and Ethiopia.

• Summit Talks: Eldis Communities

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Today is the first day of the Young People, Farming and Food conference in Accra, Ghana. Lawrence Haddad, director of the Institute of Development Studies,has written about the conference on his blog:

"The organisers aim for youth and children to participate in the development of this policy agenda.

They are right to do so. Humanity is becoming more aware of the long wave cycles we are caught up in: climate change, natural resource limits, and the peaking of the population in the middle of the 21st century have contributed to this longer view. This means we have an even stronger ethical duty to engage with the next generation in a meaningful way.

But how easy is it to include children and youth in the policy process? And what are the benefits of doing it?"

• Read the full post: "Talkin' to the Next Generation"

You can keep up with more blogs from the conference on this website and on Twitter.

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Ahead of our Young People, Food and Agriculture conference, we're asking a series of questions about the role young people in Africa play in agriculture.

The first question is about young people's role in shaping agricultural policy.

• Complete the poll - question 2
  

Tell us what you think about the issue using the comment box below.

 

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by Stephen Spratt, Institute of Development Studies

On 6 February 2012 the Future Agricultures Consortium and IDS hosted a workshop on food price volatility and financial markets. We posed three questions:

Why does volatility matter?
What impact, if any, do financial speculators have?
What, if anything, should be done about this?

Tags: food price volatility

A new book, Contested Agronomy, by FAC members Jim Sumberg and John Thompson, will be published in March by Earthscan (Routledge). It's part of the STEPS Centre's Pathways to Sustainability book series.

The dramatic increases in food prices experienced over the last four years, and their effects of hunger and food insecurity, as well as human-induced climate change and its implications for agriculture, food production and food security, are key topics within the field of agronomy and agricultural research.

Contested Agronomy: Agricultural Research in a Changing World addresses these issues by exploring key developments since the mid-1970s. The book focuses in particular on the emergence of the neoliberal project and the rise of the participation and environmental agendas, taking into consideration how these have had profound impacts on the practice of agronomic research in the developing world especially over the last four decades. Tags: sustainable agriculture

The African Union Commission is seeking proposals for research focusing on the following thematic priorities articulated in Africa’s Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action (CPA) and its Lighthouse Projects: (a) Post-harvest and Agriculture, (b) Renewable and Sustainable Energy, and (c) Water and Sanitation in Africa. The programme is financed through the Financing Agreement between the European Commission and the ACP Group of States under the ACP Research for Sustainable Development Program of the 10^th EDF Intra-ACP Envelop.

Ref: HRST/ST/AURG/CALL2/2012/EuropeAid/132-331/M/ACT/ACP

Tags: Grants, Funding