Themes
Future Agricultures explores what needs to be done to get different forms of agriculture – food/cash crops, livestock/pastoralism, smallholdings/contract farming/large holdings – moving on a track of increasing productivity and competitiveness.
We do this through work in 10 themes, examining how agricultural policy is made and put into practice in different settings, and how this could be improved
Latest articles
LDPI Small Grants Programme
April 20, 2010 / Land The Small Grants programme offers grants of up to US$2000 per study to successful applicants who wish to undertake original field research, carry out follow up fieldwork on an ongoing related initiative, or write up a paper based on research that
Linking to Lands Deals Politics Initiative (LDPI)
April 20, 2010 / Land The FAC research theme will be linked to the international Land Deals Politics Initiative (LDPI), launched in January 2010. The objective of this initiative is to provide a platform and network to generate solid evidence through detailed, field-based research that
Motivation for Land Grab Research
April 20, 2010 / Land The convergence of global crises in food, energy, finance and theenvironment has driven a dramatic revaluation of land ownership as powerful transnational and national economic actors tap into lands outside their own borders to provide food and energy security at
Climate Change Adaptation Policy Processes
April 19, 2010 / Policy Processes Two 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
Role and Performance of Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development
April 19, 2010 / Policy Processes During 2007 - 2009, the Policy Processes team conducted research in seven districts of Kenya (Eldoret West, Mwingi, Nyeri South and Rachuonyo) and Malawi (Dedza, Rumphi and Thyolo), to examine the role and performance of the Ministry of Agriculture at
‘Graduation’ and Social Protection
April 14, 2010 / Growth and Social Protection This project in the Growth and Social Protection theme focuses on the issue of ‘graduation’ from agricultural support and social protection programmes. Graduation describes a process whereby recipients of cash transfers, food aid or free or subsidised inputs and assets
Farmer Consultations on Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D)
April 12, 2010 / Science, Technology and Innovation In 2008, Future Agricultures Consortium with the Salzburg Global Seminar and theInstitute of Development Studies (IDS) helped to co-convene the initiative "Toward a 'Green Revolution' in Africa?" This initiative brought together many key stakeholders to discuss and debate what a
Pastoralist Innovation Systems
April 12, 2010 / Pastoralism The research focus of this project has been to explore and critically assess pastoralist innovation systems. There has been very little literature on innovation in the livestock sector and a particular lack of knowledge on innovation involving pastoralists. Existing formal
Women and Girls: Farmers of the Future?
March 19, 2010 / Young People & Agrifood In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in the role of women in agriculture. It has long been recognised that women perform a substantial part of the labour on family farms, particularly on food crops. Greater levels
Women and Girls: Farmers of the Future?
March 19, 2010 / Young People & Agrifood In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in the role of women in agriculture. It has long been recognised that women perform a substantial part of the labour on family farms, particularly on food crops. Greater levels
Youth Aspirations and Expectations
March 19, 2010 / Young People & Agrifood FAC Future Farmers has launched a programme of research on youth aspirations for 2010-11. African rural youth have experienced significant changes in their economic, social and cultural contexts over the past few decades. Globalisation, urbanisation and migration, as well as
Youth Aspirations and Expectations
March 19, 2010 / Young People & Agrifood FAC Future Farmers has launched a programme of research on youth aspirations for 2010-11. African rural youth have experienced significant changes in their economic, social and cultural contexts over the past few decades. Globalisation, urbanisation and migration, as well as
Africa’s Future Farmers
February 5, 2010 / Young People & Agrifood The economic, social and cultural contexts of agriculture are changing fast, as evidenced by significant shifts in the patterns of food production and consumption. An increasingly globalised world also means that there is now greater access to fast-evolving communication and
Research to Policy for Adaptation
February 5, 2010 / Climate Change DFID/IDRC-funded Research to Policy for Adaptation (RPA) project provides accessible tools, methods and conceptual approaches for researchers to analyse the policy processes for climate change adaptation in a specific country. RPA is helping to build researchers’ capacity to understand and influence policy
Africa’s Future Farmers
February 5, 2010 / Young People & Agrifood The economic, social and cultural contexts of agriculture are changing fast, as evidenced by significant shifts in the patterns of food production and consumption. An increasingly globalised world also means that there is now greater access to fast-evolving communication and
A Global Land Grab?
January 27, 2010 / Land A convergence of factors has been driving a revaluation of land by powerful economic and political actors.
Promoting Agriculture for Social Protection
January 22, 2010 / Growth and Social Protection Agriculture plays a major role in pro-poor economic growth in countries with large, poor rural sectors - this is increasingly recognised. There is also a major focus on social protection interventions to address risks and insecurity affecting poor people. However
Science,Technology and Policy
January 22, 2010 / Science, Technology and Innovation Science and technology in agriculture are once again a focus for policy attention. Many argue that a way out of the
National and Regional Panel Discussions
January 22, 2010 / Science, Technology and Innovation The objective is to elicit opinions on the state of the extension system and look forward to the future. It gives national and regional extension experts from government and NGOs, farmers and Development Agents, and private sector (e.g. investors in
Supermarkets and Standards
January 22, 2010 / Pathways to Commercialisation The changing structure of the global agri-food system – and the role of supermarkets and standards in particular - is increasingly having an impact on small scale farming in the developing world. Supermarkets – and their intermediary buyers – need
Debating Fertiliser Subsidies in Malawi
January 22, 2010 / Policy Processes FAC recently published an in depth evaluation of the 2006-07 fertilizer subsidy programme. The evaluation, by Andrew Dorward (FAC and University of London) and Ephraim Chirwa (FAC and University of Malawi), assesses the impact and implementation of the Malawi Government
Agricultural Commercialisation Theme Overview
January 22, 2010 / Pathways to Commercialisation A large literature exists on commercialisation — broadly defined as having greater engagement with markets, either for inputs, outputs, or both — of small, family farms.
States, Politics and Development in Africa
January 22, 2010 / Policy Processes A key challenge for the consortium’s work is to help develop policy responses attuned to local contexts. Politics are central to understanding context. As a consortium review paper discusses, a variety of different approaches to understanding African political systems have
Frameworks and Approaches
January 22, 2010 / Policy Processes Understanding policy processes in agriculture – or any other area – is not straightforward. It means rejecting the linear, rational policy model and embracing the complex and messy processes by which policy is understood, formulated and implemented, and the range
Land use policies
January 22, 2010 / Land Issues on land that are relevant to agricultural development include conflicts between different land uses due to the lack of a coordinating body that can ensure harmony between different users (Kenya 1994). Harmonisation of different development activities that can foster
Publication: Pastoral Innovation Systems
January 22, 2010 / Pastoralism 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
Future Farmers
January 14, 2010 / Young People & Agrifood Youth’s inclination toward agriculture and future farmers was highlighted in regional consultations. Schools children were asked to describe their homes in the past present and future. We put the images that children created on display. Their views far surpassed their
Future Farmers
January 14, 2010 / Young People & Agrifood Youth’s inclination toward agriculture and future farmers was highlighted in regional consultations. Schools children were asked to describe their homes in the past present and future. We put the images that children created on display. Their views far surpassed their
E-debate: Pastoralism in Crisis?
November 15, 2009 / Pastoralism Drought in the Horn of Africa – again. With the region's worst drought in over a decade, pastoral households around the Ethiopian, Kenyan and Somali borders have been hard hit. Alongside the humanitarian response, a re-emerging debate on the future
Climate Change Adaptation Policy Processes
August 11, 2009 / Climate Change Two 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