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A Learning Consortium

 

Awakening Africa's
Sleeping Giant

FAC's two-day international workshop to critically assess the prospects for dramatically expanding internationally competitive agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular focus on the Guinea Savannah agro-ecological zone. Read More

FARA5th African 
Agricultural 
Science Week

FARA is holding its General Assembly and the African Agricultural Science Week in Ouagadougou between 19-24 July. Read here

IDS Bulletin Latest FAC Newsletter

FACs quarterly report (January - March 2010) on activities, outputs and results. Read here

GCARDFarmer voices needed for success at GCARD
Read FAC's new Communique

DfidDfid strengthens partnership with FAC
Read More

IDS Bulletin Latest FAC Newsletter

FACs quarterly report on activities, outputs and results. Read here

IDS Bulletin A Global Land Grab?

FAC's Ian Scoones announces a new joint research effort with a small grants opportunity
Read more

IDS Bulletin Hot Topic

In Search of Africa's
Future Farmers

Climate change and smallholder agriculture

© EC 2002 (F. Lefebvre)Agriculture and Rural Development Day was held in Copenhagen on 12 December 2009.

 

350 policymakers, farmers and scientists acknowledged agriculture’s vital role in climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Find additional resources and links HERE

"The Role of Agriculture in Growth Revisited for Africa"

What is the role of agriculture in Africa's economic growth? An opinion article by Stefan Dercon and Kareen El Beyrouty critiques arguments for "agriculture first" programmes. Michigan State University Food Security Group provides comment and stresses the importance of re-investing in agriculture.

Read more and Steve Wiggins' rebuttal

IDS Bulletin Africa Forum
Conference and FAC blog posts

1st Annual ReSAKSS Conference Brings Together Diverse Stakeholders

Close to 100 policymakers, researchers, and representatives from farmers’ organizations, donors and development agencies, and the private sector convened on November 23 and 24, 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the ReSAKSS Africa-wide conference, “Exploring New Opportunities and Strategic Alternatives to Inform African Agricultural Development, Planning, and Policy”.

Conference and CAADP

IDS BulletinIDS Bulletin:
Two special agriculture issues

Pastoralist Responses
to Change

SOS Sahel International UK publishes a booklet on ' scenario planning' as a way to help pastoralists in Africa manage uncertainty and change. See:

> Planning with Uncertainty: Using Scenario Planning with African Pastoralists

> Pastoralist Innovation Systems

Forum

FAC researcher Steve Wiggins (ODI) posts reactions to the Forum, his paper and related links through this FAC 'Hot Topic'.

FAC Newsletter

The Future Agricultures Consortium first Newsletter (September 2009). Current research, links and news from country and theme perspectives.

Future of Agricultural Research
GCARD

FARA's Africa consultations on GFAR's global conference in 2010.



Read more

Ethiopian Agriculture

Dfid-sponsored research on Ethiopian agriculture and development

Link to these papers

E-Debate

Big farms or small farms:
how to respond to the food crisis?

big farm

Debate is closed

 

Contributions can be read here. Please also see this featured on IDS' web site here and the debate report by Steve Wiggins here.

FAC Commentary:
G8 Joint Statement

FAC Co-Covener Ian Scoones' commentary on the recent L'Aquila Joint Statement on Global Food Security.

Read here

International Conference

conference

Institute of Development Studies

Link here for more conference information.

 

Dfid White Paper Released

"Eliminating World Poverty: Building
our Common Future"

Link to the White Paper

Ethiopian Economics Association
Photo: Ian Scoones

The Future Agricultures
Consortium presents
research on Social Protection and Farmer Organisations in East Africa.


Read More


Farmer First: Transforming Agriculture through Farmer-Centred Innovation

big farm

On 16 June 2009, IDS Research Fellow Dr John Thompson and a distinguished panel of experts officially launched two new books that emphasise the importance of putting farmers at the centre of agricultural innovation and development: Farmer First Revisited: Innovation for Agricultural Research and Development and Innovation Africa: Enriching Farmers’ Livelihoods

Read More

New FAC Occasional Paper "Pastoralist Innovation Systems - Perspectives from Ethiopia and Kenya"

While there has been much discussion of the importance of innovation in African
agriculture, remarkably little has focused on mobile pastoral systems. Everyone agrees
that science, technology and innovation must be at the centre of economic growth,
livelihood improvement and development more broadly.But it must always be asked: what innovation - and for whom? Decisions Photo: Ian Scoonesabout direction, diversity and distribution are
key in any discussion of innovation options and wider development pathways..

 

Read this report

 

pciMore resources at
Pastoralist
Communication
Initiative

 

FAC Partners receive
Think Tank policy funding

FAC congratulates two Consortium partners being awarded Think Tank Initiative research grants. The Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) and Ethiopian Economic Association/ Ethiopian Economic Policy Research Institute (EEA/EEPRI) conduct agriculture policy research in Kenya and Ethiopia.

KIPPRAEEA

Read more

Dfid White Paper consultation

Why food and agriculture needs to be front and centre.

Read FAC Commentaries

Social Protection

New Policy Briefs and Working Papers

FAC members review social protection in Ethiopia, Malawi and Ghana in a series of Policy Briefs and Working Papers available for download in FAC Publications.

FAC Commentaries

The global food crisis and
priorities for action

FAC members discuss ways to address the food crisis in Africa in short video interviews.

FAC YouTube Channel

FAC WorkshopPhoto:Julia Day, STEPS Centre

Input Subsidy Lessons from Malawi and Kenya Opportunities, Challenges and Future Prospects: presentations and panel discussion

 

 

Blessings Chinsinga,
Department of Political and Administrative Studies,
Chancellor College, University of Malawi

Future Agricultures Consortium - Key Themes

The Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC) aims to encourage critical debate and policy dialogue on the future of agriculture in Africa. The Consortium is a partnership between research-based organisations in Africa and the UK , with work currently focusing on Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi.

Through stakeholder-led policy dialogues on future scenarios for agriculture, informed by field research, the Consortium aims to elaborate the practical and policy challenges of establishing and sustaining pro-poor agricultural growth in Africa, with a focus on Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi. Current work focuses on four core themes:

Policy processes: what political, organisational budgetary processes promote or hinder pathways to pro-poor, agriculture-led growth? What role should different actors, including Ministries of Agriculture, have in this?

Growth and social protection: what are the trade-offs and complementarities between growth and social protection objectives?

Agricultural commercialisation: what types of commercialisation of agriculture both promote growth and reduce poverty? What institutional and market arrangements are required?

Science, technology and innovation: how can agricultural technology be made to work for the poor? How are technology trajectories linked to processes of agrarian/livelihood change?

 

News and Events

LINK
Convergence of Sciences, a key to agricultural innovation in West Africa

GCARD Updates
Read more about this conference with links to updates

REPORT
Stripe Review of the Scoial Sciences in the CGIAR

NEWS
Sam Dryden to Head Gates' Agricultural Development

NEWS
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi:
‘A deal without agriculture, is no deal’

REPORT
Policy Framework for Food Security in Pastoralist Areas

PAPER
Are farmers’ organizations a good tool to improve small-scale farmers’ welfare?

BOOK
The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa

NEWS
Copenhagen: Agriculture and Rural Development Day 2009

ICRISAT and IFAD call for a second Green Revolution

NEWS
Monty Jones new chair of GFAR

VIEW
Do Small-scale Farms in Africa Have a Future?

Report
FANRPAN Regional Policy Dialogue

News
FANRPAN Launches Project to Strengthen the Capacity of Women Farmers' Influence in Agricultural Policy and Development Programmes in Southern Africa

News
Yara Prize recognises Malawi farmers' organisation and African banker for transforming smallholder agriculture

Report
Agriculture and Climate Change: Advancing Agriculture in a Copenhagen Agreed Outcome and Beyond

News
GCARD 2010: Contribute to shaping the future of agricultural research for development!

News
G8 to set aside $15bn African farming fund to reduce need for food aid

Commentary
Gordon Brown: No one in the world should have to go hungry – we need to act now

Web Resource
FAO launches new interactive livestock production and health statistics atlas

Conference
Innovation Systems For Poverty Reduction And Sustainable Livelihoods Development In SADC Countries

Report
From rural livelihoods to agricultural growth
The land policies of the UK Department of International Development

Report
The Impacts of Private Food Safety Standards on the Food Chain and on Public Standard-Setting Processes

Press Release
ILRI/AGRA Conference on role of markets for smallholders

Event
Latest Farmer First Book Launch

News
USD$30 million for African Policy Think Tanks - FAC partners included

News
Copenhagen Deal Without Agriculture is No Global Deal

News
UK: Reforming Institutions for Agricultural Research

News
USA: Doubling Financial Resources for Agricultural Development

News
Africa not benefiting from foreign land deals

Report
Haramata 54: Bulletin of the drylands - edited by IIED

News
EU € 1 billion ‘Food Facility’ for developing countries

News
Credit crunch deepens the hunger crisis

CAADP Meeting
Partnership Platform Meeting (26-27 March in Pretoria, S.A.)

Report
John Wyeth & Steve Ashley's review DFID’s 2005 Agriculture Policy

Conference
International Conference: Seasonality

e-Debate
Big Farm - Small Farm

Conference:
Science for Development: Mobilizing Global Linkages

Article:
Lessons from Zimbabwe
Book Review

Event:
Seasons of Hunger
Book Launch

Conference
Toward a Green Revolution for Africa
Conference & Report

African Commentaries:
Food Crisis

Reports:
GRAIN reports on global 'land grabs'

News:
Guardian: Rich countries launch great land grab to safeguard food supply

Event:
African Assessments of the requirements for growth & equity in African agriculture

Review:
ODI concludes review of the Millennium Villages Project

Publication:
Towards ‘smart’ subsidies in agriculture? Lessons from recent experience in Malawi

Publication:
Private Standards, Small Farmers and Donor Policy: EUREPGAP in Kenya

Publication:
The Role of Agriculture in Achieving MDG1

Debate:
Policy frameworks for increasing soil fertility in Africa

Traduction:
Ce site web est maintenant en Francais!

Debat:
Cadres politiques propices à l’amélioration de la fertilité des sols en Afrique

Briefing paper:
The Global Fertiliser Crisis and Africa
by Andrew Dorward and Colin Poulton

More news and events...

Related websites

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steps

ffr

 

Agriculture is a key pathway out of poverty

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Future Agricultures, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, BN1 9RE Tel: +44 (0)1273 877418 Email: FAC@ids.ac.uk

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