What makes governments invest in different kinds of agricultural development? Responses from delegates at our March conference on the Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa are featured in an article by the New Agriculturist magazine.

The delegates addressed the following questions:

• Why have African governments not met the 2003 Maputo Declaration of investing 10 per cent budgetary allocation in agriculture?
• What role can and should donors play?
• What role for civil society organisations?
• Directions for policy and investment

You can read their answers in full on the New Agriculturist website.

Photo: Tamani Nkhono-Mvula (screenshot) by Francois Hayden

The six plenary sessions at the Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa conference were filmed in their entirety.

Watch the videos below to see debates on the BRICS, African co-operation, civil society and the policy process.

The conference took place from 18-20 March in Pretoria, South Africa, bringing together representatives from research, politics, donor organisations and civil society in Africa and beyond. For more video, see our series of short interviews with participants.

These short video interviews were filmed with participants at the Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa conference.

Participants interviewed include Arilson Favareto, Buba Khan, John Barrett, Lidia Cabral, Patience Mutopo, Nancy Kachingwe, Tamani Nkhono-Mvula and Ruth Oniang'o.

The conference took place from 18-20 March in Pretoria, South Africa, bringing together representatives from research, politics, donor organisations and civil society in Africa and beyond.

A newsletter was produced at the end of each day of the conference on the Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa, March 2013.

The newsletters were handed out to participants at the event, but they are also available to download. Though they are not intended to be a full record of the conference, they provide some brief reflections on the topics discussed on each day.

• Conference newsletter: day 1
• Conference newsletter: day 2
• Conference newsletter: day 3

The contributors to the newsletter were Rebecca Smalley (independent researcher), Susanna Thorp (WRENmedia/Future Agricultures), Nathan Oxley and Beatrice Ouma (Future Agricultures), Fran Seballos and Musab Younis (IDS) and Rebecca Pointer (PLAAS).

Media coverage and comment generated by the Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa conference has included:

• Brics and Africa: a winning partnership against hunger?
  The Guardian, UK
  26 March 2013
• South Africa: Learning from the Rising Powers' development experiences
  AllAfrica.com
  25 March 2013
• What are the BRICS building in Africa?
  Huffington Post World
  27 March 2013
• African researchers form group to check agric policies
  Zodiak Online, Malawi
  25 March 2013
• Agriculture seen as key to poverty alleviation
  Business Day, Nigeria
  19 March 2013
• Getting farmers involved in agricultural policy making
  Business Day, Nigeria
  10 April 2013

This week Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa meet in Durban for the 5th BRICS summit.

Expectations are mounting about the BRICS' ability to change the future of development. 'Models' from Brazil and elsewhere have been held up as promising a revolution in agriculture for Africa.

In a new blog post written for the Guardian newspaper's Development Professionals Network, Lidia Cabral asks if the hype is justified, and looks at new research which suggests that talk of a revolution is still premature.

• Blog: Lidia Cabral: Can the BRICS help Africa feed itself?
• The Guardian: Brics and Africa: a winning partnership against hunger? by Lidia Cabral, 26 March 2013
• China and Brazil in African Agriculture - project pages