The Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC – www.future-agricultures.org) is a network of research organisations in the UK and Africa committed to promoting informed policy dialogue and debate on the future of agriculture in Africa. It is funded by the UK?s Department for International Development, and has a secretariat currently located at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex.

The Science, Technology and Innovation theme of FAC is developing a new strand of work on the „Political Economy of Cereal Seed Systems in Africa?. A Planning and Methodology Workshop was held at the University of Sussex on 13-15 July 2009 to help develop an analytical framework and research design for this work to guide scoping studies in five countries – Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe. This report summarises the main discussions and action points from that event.