December 7, 2012 / LDPI Working Papers
LDPI Working Paper 3by Bliss J; Guillozet K Foreign investment in Ethiopia’s forestry sector is currently limited, but agricultural investments that affect forests — largely through forest clearing — are commonplace, but there are challenges and opportunities in implementing them.
December 7, 2012 / LDPI Working Papers
LDPI Working Paper 2by Lavers, T. Recent foreign agricultural investment in Africa has generated a great deal of interest and criticism, with western media warning of a neo-colonial ‘land grab’. This paper moves beyond this narrow assessment by examining the
December 7, 2012 / LDPI Working Papers
Full title: Commercial Biofuel Land Deals & Environment and Social Impact Assessments in Africa: Three case studies in Mozambique and Sierra Leone LDPI Working Paper 1by Andrew M; van Vlaenderen H This paper examines three case studies of proposed biofuel
December 1, 2012 / Journal articles
by Stephen WhitfieldOutlook on Agriculture, Volume 41, Number 4, December 2012 , pp. 249-256(8) Evidence-based policy represents an emergent discourse in African agriculture and is welcomed by many for the emphasis it places on the legitimization of policies and strategies through
November 29, 2012 / Media
The Future Agricultures Consortium is inviting journalists and media specialists to enter a competition for writing on the politics and processes that influence agricultural investment in Africa. The entry deadline is 8 February 2013 and the winners will be supported
November 28, 2012 / FAC blog
A post on the STEPS Centre blog by Future Agricultures researchers Jim Sumberg and John Thompson looks at the politics of chicken in Ghana, with elections just around the corner. 70,900 metric tons of frozen chicken were imported into the
November 28, 2012 / Policy Processes
A post on the STEPS Centre blog by Future Agricultures researchers Jim Sumberg and John Thompson looks at the politics of chicken in Ghana, with elections just around the corner. 70,900 metric tons of frozen chicken were imported into the
November 23, 2012 / Science, Technology and Innovation
The Guardian's latest Global Development podcast features a panel discussing the future for farmers, GM crops and agriculture. The discussion, which includes FAC's Andrew Dorward, was recorded at the UK DSA conference in October 2012. High food prices, concerns about
November 18, 2012 / Land
Malawi's Green Belt Initiative aims to offer land to local and international investors, in order to increase agricultural production, productivity, incomes and food security. But it may also be facilitating 'land grabs' from smallholder farmers. This new Policy Brief (pdf)
November 18, 2012 / Growth and Social Protection
Malawi's Green Belt Initiative aims to offer land to local and international investors, in order to increase agricultural production, productivity, incomes and food security. But it may also be facilitating 'land grabs' from smallholder farmers. This new Policy Brief (pdf)
November 18, 2012 / Policy Briefs
FAC Policy Brief 55 by Blessings Chinsinga and Michael Chasukwa There is often a mismatch between the apparent benevolent intents and the practical manifestations of the large scale land deals. The empirical realities of the large-scale land deals call for
November 13, 2012 / Policy Processes
The process of democratisation does not always create better pro-poor agricultural policy in Africa. The Africa Portal has published an interview with FAC researcher Colin Poulton on whether democratisation in Africa leads to more pro-poor agricultural policy. The interview comes
November 5, 2012 / Climate Change
A new paper questions the ‘triple wins’ claimed by Kenyan supporters of agricultural carbon finance. Supporters of agricultural carbon finance claim multiple benefits for Africa, but the reality is more complex. This working paper by Joanes O. Atela explores how,
November 5, 2012 / Working Papers
STEPS Centre Working Paper 49by Joanes Atela In the context of major scientific and policy concern with the causes and implications of climate change, various actors are now keen to demonstrate how agricultural carbon finance can help achieve multiple benefits
November 5, 2012 / Growth and Social Protection
Ethiopia’s Food Security Programme (FSP) has aimed to alleviate hunger and poverty through several programmes since 2005. A new Future Agricultures report (pdf) identifies the main enablers and constrainers of resilience and graduation from food and cash support provided through
November 2, 2012 / Policy Briefs
FAC Policy Brief 54 by Laura Pereira The world’s food system is undergoing an unprecedented transformation: not just from the significant impacts of global environmental change (GEC), but also from the rapid expansion of transnational agribusiness. The food system is
November 2, 2012 / Working Papers
Assessing Enablers and Constrainers of Graduation: Evidence from the Food Security Programme, Ethiopia FAC Working Paper 44 Rachel Sabates-Wheeler, Mulugeta Tefera and Girma Bekele April 2012 The purpose of this report is to identify the main enablers and constrainers of
November 2, 2012 / Journal articles
by James Sumberg, Dennis Keeney and Benedict DempseyThe Journal of Development Studies, Volume 48, Issue 11, 2012 This article examines the role played by Norman Borlaug in promoting the notion of Green Revolution as a way to rapidly transform agriculture
October 31, 2012 / Journal special issues
Sumberg, J. and Wellard, K. IDS Bulletin 43.6 Publisher IDS Buy a copy of this Bulletin from the IDS website View abstracts and subscribe to this IDS Bulletin Despite increased commitment to evidence-based policy in African agriculture, the profile of
October 31, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood
A new IDS Bulletin asks what young people really mean for the future of African agricultural policy. The articles in the new IDS Bulletin on Young People and Agriculture in Africa are drawn from the international conference on 'Young People,
October 31, 2012 / Land
Jose Graziano da Silva, the Director-General of the UN FAO, urged researchers and others to get involved in international processes to tackle land grabs at the Global Land Grabbing II conference last week. In a new article on the IDS
October 31, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood
On 17th October 2012, at the 39th Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in Rome, the Young People and Agri-Food Theme of Future Agricultures co-hosted a side event on rural employment and food security, with FARM, CIRAD and AFD, The
October 30, 2012 / FAC blog
Context and theory isn’t just interesting – it’s essential This time round, there was a greater attempt to locate empirical findings in wider conceptual and theoretical debates. The last conference was dominated by case after case, all fresh from the
October 25, 2012 / FAC blog
Africa-Brazil connections have a long history, with records dating back to Portuguese colonialism. Ties were strong then. These were built, not least, through transatlantic shipping routes and slave trade which left visible marks on either side of the Atlantic. After
October 24, 2012 / News
As post-2015 development goals are being developed by the UN and others, Andrew Dorward of Future Agricultures gave evidence to the International Development Committee in the UK yesterday (23 October). The UN has launched a broad consultative process for the
October 19, 2012 / FAC blog
Honig’s research shows that, although the vast majority of Zambian chiefs are against the formation of state-owned 100,000-hectare farm blocks, in most cases they consent to the transfer of land title and thus the consolidation of state authority. Her research
October 19, 2012 / FAC blog
Beyond this historical legacy to contend with, Edelman identified contemporary challenges of how we “know” how many hectares are being grabbed. What are our sources, and how reliable are they? Who produced them and why? Is this, Edelman asked, a
October 19, 2012 / FAC blog
Q: What kind of role do you think academics and research can play in positively advancing people’s livelihoods, in the land grabbing struggle? What are some strengths, or things that could be changed? Do you think this conference is a
October 18, 2012 / FAC blog
Ben Cousins also found that contemporary solutions to colonial land grabs may, in fact, be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. In South Africa, the “inclusive business models” approach to land reform is susceptible to the same contradiction between
October 18, 2012 / Land
The 2nd International Global Land Grabbing Conference opened with the "big questions" for land grabbing, with a wide-ranging panel discussion. You can watch all of the videos in the playlist embedded below. The panel, chaired by Jessie Ribot (University of
October 18, 2012 / FAC blog
Land grabs have the strange position of both deriving from and contributing to the Anthropocene, to human domination of ecological processes. Land grabs contribute to the Anthropocene because agriculture contributes to 12% of greenhouse gas emissions, and up to 30%
October 18, 2012 / FAC blog
Farshad Araghi focused on the commodification of land rights from a global historical perspective, using Braudel’s conception of the “longue durée” as a methodological tool. Tania Li went on to examine how land is treated as an abstract alienable object
October 18, 2012 / FAC blog
Meghan Morris presented the case of land restitution in Colombia as a mechanism through which violence and state-organised land titling are changing traditional tenure systems. Her case studies provide the empirical window through which stories emerge that depict the often
October 18, 2012 / FAC blog
1. How are deals initiated upstream? (Melissa Leach) Are deals dreamed up in boardrooms, investment fora, or other closed-door arenas? How can this process be opened up, for example by investigative journalism or insider observation? We need to take a
October 17, 2012 / FAC blog
The issue of water grabs is a particularly slippery one. Unlike land, water flows and moves from one place to another; its availability goes up and down, affected by the seasons, human use, or climate change; it can be visibly
October 16, 2012 / China and Brazil in African Agriculture
Lidia Cabral, FAC researcher, will be on the panel for this Canning House event in London on 18 October 2012. The panel will discuss the development of Brazil-Africa relations over the past decade, and what the future holds as Brazil
October 16, 2012 / Land
Around the Global Land Grabbing conference on 17-19 October 2012, the LDPI (Land Deals Politics Initiative) is building a global map of land deals. Visit the online request form on the conference website to submit information to this global database,
October 16, 2012 / Land
In the run up to the Second International Conference on Land Grabbing, two speakers have blogged on different aspects of the rush for land. Teo Ballvé writes about how violent paramilitaries have stolen land in Colombia and then 'laundered' it
October 16, 2012 / FAC blog
A major World Bank study last year found that one in five people in the world live in conflict-affected countries, including those with high levels of organized crime. Almost all these countries also appear in a World Bank report on
October 14, 2012 / FAC blog
Although these governance processes seem very distant from the local, we know from experience in other fields such as human rights, labour, international trade and environmental standards that transnational and global governance can have a major influence on developments on
October 11, 2012 / FAC blog
As Mike explains, simple narratives can help policy-makers make sense of a complex situation, but they can go badly wrong when applied to people ‘at the margins’. The second blog post focuses on the media in Kenya, where pastoralism is
October 10, 2012 / Science, Technology and Innovation
What is a "yield gap"? The term might be rooted in the science of crop production ecology, but it is now increasingly used as a device to frame policy. The journal Food Security carries an article by Future Agricultures member
October 10, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood
We are involved in a side event at the Committee for World Food Security on the role of employment in agricultural value chains for food security this month. The event, organised by FARM, AFD, Cirad and Future Agricultures Consortium, is
October 10, 2012 / Land
Estimates of global land deals, placed at 50 million hectares in an early World Bank study (2010), now hover between 80 and 760 million according to Oxfam and others. While land grabs were originally considered an “African phenomenon,” it is
October 5, 2012 / Land
This page tells the story of the Land Grabbing II conference through comments, images and links to longer articles. It will be updated before, throughout and after the event. If you are on Twitter, you can join in the conversation
October 5, 2012 / Climate Change
This working paper (pdf) analyses policy discussions on climate change and agriculture in Ghana, looking at their origins and what their implications are. The dominant narrative: mitigating climate change Agriculture has only recently become a central part of climate change
October 5, 2012 / Climate Change
This working paper is among the first of its kind to analyse policy discussions on climate change and agriculture in the Malawi. In Malawi, national debates are framed as an issue of managing the risk that climate change poses to
October 5, 2012 / Climate Change
Two new working papers explore the changing debates around climate and agriculture policy in Ghana and Malawi. Agriculture and climate change are now firmly at the top of the research and policy agenda. The issues are attracting more and more
October 3, 2012 / Working Papers
FAC Working Paper 46by Blessings Chinsinga, Michael Chasukwa and Lars Otto Naess This paper explores climate change – agriculture debates in Malawi in view of the increasing interest and funding pledges for the agricultural sector in a changing climate. While
October 3, 2012 / Working Papers
FAC Working Paper 45 by Daniel Bruce Sarpong and Nana Akua Anyidoho This paper examines agriculture-climate change policy discussions in Ghana in the context of, on the one hand, increasing international interest and activity around climate change and agriculture, and
Share
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok
