Brochure introducing the APRA programme.

Press release on the launch of the Comprehensive Programme on Integrated Seed Sector Development in Africa, September 2014.

Press release announcing the launch of ISSD Africa.

Press release (in French) with details of the event “Making Agricultural Investment Work for Africa: A parliamentarian response to the land rush“, August 2014.

Press release with details of the event “Making Agricultural Investment Work for Africa: A parliamentarian response to the land rush“, August 2014.

Brochure about the Future Agricultures Consortium.

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 to attend FAC’s major conference on the Political economy of agricultural policy in Africa, which takes place in South Africa in March 2013.

30 April 2008
International Conference: Towards a Green Revolution for Africa

Kofi Annan has called for a “uniquely African Green Revolution” founded on “bold pro-poor policies” to address the food crisis facing Africa and the world.

As food prices escalate at an unprecedented rate and shortages worsen, the Former Secretary General of the United Nations and Chairman of the Board of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has called for a new approach to finding equitable solutions.

Presenter: Nik Gowing

Guests: Dr Makanjuola Olaseinde Arigbede; Andrew Bennett; Kevin Cleaver; Crawford Falconer; Professor LouiseFresco; Anthony Gooch; Duncan Green; Simeon Greene; The Honourable Kate Kainja Kaluluma; Paul Nicholson;Esther Penunia; Professor Norah Olembo; Peter Robbins; Dr. Pedro Sanchez

NIK GOWING: in the rich countries and the poorer countries, in the developed world and the developing world, in the north and the south smallholder farmers are leaving the land. Our food is increasingly being produced by big business. As long as there is food for you and me to buy does it matter? A growing body of expert opinions says yes it does.Studies show that in poorer countries the tens of millions of small farms are a win win for economic growth and poverty reduction. They are more efficient than large farms. They keep large numbers of people in paid productive work and they ensure secure supplies of food. So if small farms are so important why is their very existence under threat? Why should we care about failing the farmer?

Well we’ve brought together an international panel of farmers’ representatives, from government, from tradebodies, scientists, business, non governmental organisations and donor agencies to discuss whether we are failing the farmer. Let’s hear from three smallholder farmers for whom farming is their way of life that’s under threat. Paul Nicholson, you’re a farmer from the Basque region in Northern Spain, you speak for the international peasant movement which is La Via Campesina. Why should we be caring about the small farmer? Small farmers produce the majority of all the food we consume wherever we are in this world.

By Amdissa Teshome

A number of observers have described the policy making process in Ethiopia as strongly influenced by a long history of centralised, hierarchical systems of control under Imperial rule and nearly two decades of military rule by the Derg. The present government has made efforts to reverse this legacy however.