Events
The Future Agricultures Consortium participates in many conferences and workshops. We also watch for important agriculture policy “windows” and report them here.
Latest articles
General Call for Papers
June 29, 2011 / Agricultural Investment, Gender and Land in Africa Deadline 15 September 2011 The organizers invite papers that offer rigorous analysis from various critical perspectives around the topics and questions listed below. We also encourage comparative studies and welcome proposals for thematic panels. Co-organized and hosted by the Future
Call for Abstracts: Land policies in East Africa 3-4 November 2011
June 22, 2011 / Events Land policies in East Africa: Technological Innovations, Administration and Patrimonial stakes International Conference Kampala, Uganda November 3 - 4 November 2011 This conference aims at promoting scientific exchanges involving researchers and stakeholders dealing with land issues. Participants will be invited
FAC Discussion Paper – Future Farmers: Youth Aspirations, Expectations and Life Choices
June 21, 2011 / Young People, Farming & Food Conference Young people constitute a high and increasing proportion of the African population, with around 70 percent of the continent’s total population currently under the age of 30. Evidence suggests many young people are choosing not to pursue livelihoods in the
FAC Discussion Paper – Future Farmers: Youth Aspirations, Expectations and Life Choices
June 21, 2011 / Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa Young people constitute a high and increasing proportion of the African population, with around 70 percent of the continent’s total population currently under the age of 30. Evidence suggests many young people are choosing not to pursue livelihoods in the
FAC Discussion Paper – Future Farmers: Youth Aspirations, Expectations and Life Choices
June 21, 2011 / Agricultural Investment, Gender and Land in Africa Young people constitute a high and increasing proportion of the African population, with around 70 percent of the continent’s total population currently under the age of 30. Evidence suggests many young people are choosing not to pursue livelihoods in the
Seminar: Smallholder Rice Development in Tanzania: Is the Japanese Approach Different?
May 23, 2011 / Events Monday, 20 June 2011, 13:00 – 15:00, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Room 120
Call for abstracts: Re-thinking Development in Ethiopia
May 12, 2011 / Events Download the Call for abstracts Background The Forum for Social Studies (FSS), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the Centre for Development Research (CDR), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, issue a call for abstracts for a book on ‘RE-THINKING
Seed Systems Conference 1 – 3 June 2011
May 12, 2011 / Events 1-3 June 2011, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Theme: Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Seed Systems in Ethiopia Conference topics: Policies, strategies and institutions for seed system development Role and performance of the formal seed system Farmers'
Plenary session: Concluding conversation
April 20, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Short presentations from different perspectives: what have we learned, what action do we need to take?
Plenary panel: Perspectives from Social Movements and Civil Society
April 20, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs A moderated panel discussion on key challenges and responses from social movements and civil society, followed by a plenary debate.
Panel session: Policy roundtable HARDTALK
April 20, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Policy roundtable: perspectives from multilateral/bilateral development institutions. Five minute presentations on agency positions and key issues, followed by facilitated question and answer session and plenary discussion.
Panel Session: Framing the debate
April 20, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs A panel discussion and plenary debate on the ways that the ‘land grab’ debate has been framed, reflecting on the findings of different research groups.
Plenary Panel
April 20, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Conceptual perspectives on land grabbing and the politics of agrarian change: A plenary panel and discussion
Background to the conference
April 19, 2011 / Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa Agricultural development is back at the top of the development agenda in Africa. Ten years ago, the Maputo Declaration committed African governments to substantial increases in investment. Since then, 23 countries have completed country investment plans as part of the
Background to the conference
April 19, 2011 / Agricultural Investment, Gender and Land in Africa Agricultural development is back at the top of the development agenda in Africa. Ten years ago, the Maputo Declaration committed African governments to substantial increases in investment. Since then, 23 countries have completed country investment plans as part of the
Conference Background
April 19, 2011 / Young People, Farming & Food Conference In Africa, policy interest in the ‘young people – agriculture nexus’ focuses almost exclusively on the challenge of keeping young people in rural areas and engaged in farming. This approach ignores important drivers, trends and developments that are impacting on
Timelines – Future of Pastoralism
April 15, 2011 / Future of Pastoralism Conference participants developed timelines for specific pastoralist areas where they've worked. Timelines captured trends (population, markets, rangeland change, climate, water, etc.) as well as events (local leadership change, government change, boundaries, conflict, drought, etc.) and publications of key research or
Panel 8: POLITICAL ECONOMY – Estates and Outgrowers
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Land deals take many divergent institutional forms, ranging from large estate agriculture based on wage labour, to outgrower and contract schemes, with many permutations in between, (including options for food crop production alongside biofuel feedstocks). This panel explores the varied
Panel 9: GOVERNANCE – Human Rights
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Evictions and land conflicts in general represent situations in which human rights are very likely to be violated. This is true in all cases where the land is taken without respecting basic international standards such as a prior comprehensive impact
Panel 10: POLITICS – Commodification, Conflicts and Dispossession: Interactions between the Global and the local
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs The papers in this panel analyse the impacts of global processes of an increased commodification of land - related to a scramble for land for large-scale agricultural production, the production of biofuels, and tourism - on local contestations over land
Panel 11: LIVELIHOODS – Livelihoods and Dispossession
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs The focus of this panel is the relationship between land grabs, dispossession and livelihoods. Land is a key livelihood resource and is used in a variety of ways by different peoples; an analysis of the effects of dispossession on livelihoods
Panel 2 – ENVIRONMENT: Carbon Grabs
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs As global environmental politics, political economies and policies turn increasingly on the imperatives of climate change mitigation, so land and resources in many parts of the world are coming to be re-valued in terms of their potential contributions to reducing
Panel 3 – POLITICAL ECONOMY: Enclaves and Corridors
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Governments creating “Growth corridors” and “Special Economic Zones” facilitate the acquisition of great expanses of land by large corporations, both foreign and domestic, in the name of development. While these public-private partnerships are claimed to have beneficial developmental effects on
Panel 4 – GOVERNANCE: Codes of Conduct/Roundtables
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs The expansion of land investments in new global commodities brings to the fore dynamics between the competing crises of food, energy, climate and finance. With global policies and capital driving such expansion, power inequalities between actors whose livelihoods are intimately
Panel 5 – POLITICS: Conflict and Violence
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Contemporary land grabbing is often associated with violent conflict. This can be seen in the way enclosures are being carried out, or how contract farming or labour recruitment are being framed and enforced, and when ordinary villagers resist getting dispossessed
Panel 16: LIVELIHOODS – Transition countries
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs This panel aims at exploring the blank spot in the "land grab" debate: the concealed but accelerating process of domestic and international large-scale land acquisitions in the transition countries of the former socialist countries in Eurasia.
Panel 18: POLITICAL ECONOMY – Intra-regional Land Deals
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Several developing countries are not only the destination of large-scale land deals, but also the source of new investments. South-South land grabbing challenges traditional conceptions in political economy, and raises questions as to whether these arise from or produce different
Panel 19: GOVERNANCE – Restructuring the State I
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs This is the first in a two-panel series. In the series, presenters focus on the relationship between large-scale land grabs and modern forms, ideas and manifestations of the State. The papers highlight the ways in which land grabs shape the
Panel 20: POLITICS – Local Politics
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs A government-to-government land deal is often no more than a framework, under which concrete deals between agribusiness corporations and local government for the leasing of designated areas may or may not emerge. The actual “grabbing” of land – the dispossession
Panel 21: OVERVIEW – Evaluating options: opportunity or danger?
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs This panel will consider narratives, arguments and methodologies for investigating the significance and impacts of land deals – rather than focusing on particular empirical case studies. Four contributors tackle this in different ways.
Panel 27: OVERVIEW – Land grabbing and land titling
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Global land grabbing is often associated with institutional processes around formal land titling, either a precondition for the land deals or a result of land deals. This panel will critically examine multiple linkages between land titling on the one hand
Panel 22: LIVELIHOODS – Pastoralism
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Large land deals involving a range of domestic and transnational investors are reconfiguring access to resources in drylands in sub-Saharan Africa and presenting new threats for pastoralists inhabiting these environments. The livelihoods of pastoralists depend greatly on mobility and flexibility
Panel 1 – LIVELIHOODS: Land Rights
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Land deals have been called 'land grabs' where these have prompted displacement and dispossession, in contexts of weak land rights laws and institutions. The panel combines two regional reviews - of Africa and Southeast Asia - with two more detailed
Panel 28: LIVELIHOODS – Biofuels and Livelihoods
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Salient discourses and narratives justify biofuel related interventions in terms of the economic development of "waste" or "idle" lands, alternative energy and climate change. These exist alongside counter- narratives that project a dire food security crisis related to biofuel development.
Panel 12: ENVIRONMENT – Green Grabs
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs In this panel, presenters focus on land grabs conducted in the name of environmental stewardship. Although most of the attention on land-grabbing has gone to corporate and government buyers, the expropriation or use of land for the purposes of conservation
Panel 23: ENVIRONMENT – Water
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Are land grabs actually water grabs? Water scarcity is a driver of land grabs. Arid countries in the Gulf and elsewhere seek to produce their food in other countries' endowed with higher rainfall, rather than rely on volatile global commodity
PANEL 29: ENVIRONMENT – Ecologies of Dispossession
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Presenters focus on the way in which land grabs re-shape ecological conditions and functions in various places as well as the way in which notions of the Environment shapes global discourses and structures of land use. All of the papers
Panel 13: POLITICAL ECONOMY – Finance
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs The issue of land acquisitions in developing countries cannot be separated from finance. Investors, whether commercially or strategically oriented, are supplying the new demand that is eliciting supply, sparking great controversy along the way.
Panel 24: POLITICAL ECONOMY – Partnerships and Business Models
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Faced with ongoing challenges of rural poverty and the need to promote national economic development, African governments in particular are looking for new ways to promote external investment in agriculture, increasingly in the form of commercial partnerships with local communities.
Panel 30: POLITICAL ECONOMY – Dragon in a Three Piece Suit: China Invests
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Focussing on Chinese investment in land and agriculture, the panelists suggest that widespread investment in land from China is relatively new and potentially distinct from investments made by other actors.
Panel 14: GOVERNANCE – Legal Frameworks
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Parties to land deals extend beyond primary lessors and lessees, and may involve private companies, national governments, regulatory institutions, financiers, non-governmental organisations, and local communities, among others. The papers in this panel explore multiple laws, treaties, codes, agreements, standards and
PANEL 25: GOVERNANCE – Restructuring the State II
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs This is the second in a two-panel series (See Panel 19 for first part) . In the series, presenters focus on the relationship between large-scale land grabs and modern forms, ideas or manifestations of the State.
Panel 31: GOVERNANCE – Community consultation and free prior informed consent
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs "Free, prior and informed consent" is an international standard against which community consultation processes regarding land-based investment can be based. This panel explores questions about these notions, with reference to experiences in several countries including (nearly independent) Southern Sudan.
Panel 15: POLITICS – Local Elites
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs The notion of a „global? land grab has drawn attention to the transnational character of large-scale land acquisitions, yet empirical research is suggested a central role played by domestic elites – at local, provincial and national levels – as investors,
Panel 26: POLITICS – Resistance and Mobilization I
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Global land grabbing is politically contested process, partly explaining for its uneven outcomes from one setting to another. The political contestations around land grabbing vary in character, actors, agendas, forms, ideology, politics and trajectory. This panel (one of the two
Panel 32: POLITICS – Resistance and Mobilization II
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs Global land grabbing is politically contested process, partly explaining for its uneven outcomes from one setting to another. The political contestations around land grabbing vary in character, actors, agendas, forms, ideology, politics and trajectory. This panel (one of the two
Panel 6 – LIVELIHOODS: Gender
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs This panel will look at gendered dimensions of land deals and large-scale commercial 'land conversions', in terms of the negotiation processes, land governance and authority, and gender-differentiated impacts. The papers present empirical material from case studies in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, China
Panel 17: ENVIRONMENT – Mining
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs The scramble for land is in substantial part a scramble for mineral wealth. While land grabs for food and fuel crops have gained attention in recent years, mining expansion in many developing countries is similarly increasing competition over land. In
Panel 7 – ENVIRONMENT: Constructing Marginal Lands
April 14, 2011 / Land Grab Panel Outputs One of the key contexts of contemporary land grabbing is the changing dynamics in the agrofood, feed and fuel complex in the face of multiple crises. The mainstream idea is that there is a solution to these problems, and the