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
The politics of agricultural carbon finance in Kenya
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,
Overcoming dependence: food security in Ethiopia
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
IDS Bulletin: Young People and Agriculture in Africa
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,
Land grabbing: from understanding to global action
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
Employment and food security: broadening the debate
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
Land Grabs: the big questions
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
Global Brazil meets the new Africa
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
Build a global map of land deals
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,
Blogs: “Land laundering” and global governance
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
Mind the (yield) gap(s)
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
Event: Employment and Agricultural Value Chains at CFS 39
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
Land Grabbing II conference: press release
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
Storify: Land Grabbing II conference
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
Climate change policy in Ghana
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
Climate change policy in Malawi
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
How is climate change and agriculture policy made in Africa?
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
Land grabs: what’s really happening?
October 3, 2012 / Land The global financial crisis has given way to a rush for land. If people ever took the land they lived and worked on for granted, they can no longer afford to do so. Tracts of territory are being leased or
South Sudan: caught in a trap?
October 2, 2012 / Policy Processes In a seminar at the Institute of Development Studies on 1 October, Dr Luka Biong Deng discussed South Sudan's uneasy relationship with oil and some ways to understand the country's future (audio and slides are below). The excitement of recent
Is the Livestock Revolution ‘supply driven’?
September 26, 2012 / Science, Technology and Innovation The notion of the 'Livestock Revolution' is one of the most powerful ideas to emerge in the area of food, nutrition and agriculture in the last 10 years. It has been called a 'supply driven' revolution, in contrast to the
Cotton in Burkina Faso: politics and change
September 21, 2012 / Policy Processes The cotton industry in Burkina Faso is widely regarded as a success story. But little research has been done on the political economy of the industry.A working paper by Augustin Loada (in French) examines the key players, reform processes, and
Has the rise in democracy in Africa helped poor farmers?
August 31, 2012 / Policy Processes This working paper examines how agricultural policy for the poor in eight African countries has been affected by the process of democratisation. For a number of reasons, the agriculture sector has been neglected by national governments and development agencies in
Video: Youth and agriculture policy
August 24, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood In these mini-interviews filmed at the Young People, Farming and Food conference in March 2012, researchers, advocates, young people and representatives from business talk about the problems with policies related to young people and the agri-food sector; and the differences
Small grants for youth & agriculture research: winners announced
August 20, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood The winners of the small grants competition for research into young people and agri-food have been announced. The grants programme was launched in May 2012 by Future Agricultures, to fund research and other work to pursue a research agenda following
Land Grabs II: 17-19 October, USA
August 17, 2012 / Land The second international academic workshop on ‘Global Land Grabbing’ was held on 17-19 October 2012 at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, USA. This event is presented by the Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI) and the Cornell Department of Development Sociology.
Gender Relations and agricultural research
August 8, 2012 / Gender & Social Difference Christine Okali, FAC Gender and Social Difference theme convenor, will attend two forthcoming meetings on gender and agricultural research in October 2012. The first is an international seminar on 'Gender Relations and Women’s Agency in Rural Environment: What Has Changed,
Youth and farming: presentations to Ethiopian economists
August 8, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood Our research on Young People and Agriculture was recently highlighted in a series of presentations by Future Agricultures researchers at the 10th International Conference on the Ethiopian Economy, organized by the Ethiopian Economics Association. The presentations below can be downloaded
Getting on with the job: connecting smallholders to markets in eastern Africa
August 8, 2012 / Pathways to Commercialisation Over 30 agricultural development practitioners from four eastern African countries participated in a ‘Smallholder Café’ in Nairobi on 11 July 2012.The event was the second of three regional workshops, organised by Future Agricultures Consortium, and co-hosted by the Food, Agriculture
Book: Pastoralism and Development in Africa
July 9, 2012 / Pastoralism This book gives a view of ‘development at the margins’ in the pastoral areas of the Horn of Africa. Edited by Andy Catley, Jeremy Lind and Ian Scoones, Pastoralism and Development In Africa highlights innovation and entrepreneurialism, cooperation, networking and
Video: our Commercialisation research
June 27, 2012 / Pathways to Commercialisation In this series of five videos, Future Agricultures Consortium researchers talk about our work on Commercialisation. We are looking at how small farmers participate in markets, how policies and institutions can support them, through a series of case studies. These
South-South Co-operation seminar findings
June 27, 2012 / China and Brazil in African Agriculture The findings of the seminar on South-South Co-operation in May 2012 are presented in an edition of Poverty in Focus, a regular publication of the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth. The edition, entitled The Role of South-South Cooperation in
Corporate land grabs: new journal issue
June 25, 2012 / Land Future Agricultures researchers have contributed to an issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies on large land deals. 'The new enclosures' examines the implications of large-scale 'land grabs' for property, labour and rights. Estimates of the total area of large
Youth and farming in Senegal
June 20, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood The REVA plan in Senegal aims to encourage young people to return to agriculture. Mohamadou Sall, Future Agricultures Consortium researcher, has led a study into the plan's impacts, which found that it has helped to change attitudes, introduce more modern
The slippery nature of water grabbing
June 20, 2012 / Land Large-scale land acquisitions for agricultural investment, popularly known as 'land grabbing', have recently attracted headline attention. But the implications of these land grabs for water resources have stayed out of the spotlight until now. A special issue of the journal
Village studies: insights and policy implications
June 1, 2012 / Pathways to Commercialisation From our village studies in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania, five key overall results are emerging. These have led us to identify some emerging lessons for policy makers who have a role in promoting commercialisation in these countries.
Can smallholders still deliver development in rural Africa?
June 1, 2012 / Pathways to Commercialisation While small farmer development has been critical in African development in the past — for example, in the cases of cocoa farmers in southern Ghana in the late 19th Century, coffee smallholders in Kenya in the 1950s and 1960s, or
Brazil, China and Africa: problems and alternatives
June 1, 2012 / China and Brazil in African Agriculture Two new blog posts reflect on our recent seminar on cooperation between Brazil, China and Africa. Blessings Chinsinga writes about concerns about transplanting solutions from Brazil to Africa, and Qi Gubo considers the alternatives offered by an "adaptive cooperation" approach.
Colloquium on Land Grabbing, 11 June 2012
June 1, 2012 / Land The 4th Critical Agrarian Studies Colloquium has taken place in The Hague, Netherlands. After a few years dominated by important reports on land grabbing from NGOs and the media, as well as initial scoping studies from some academics, the year
Shooting the messenger: Controversy over farmworker conditions in South Africa
May 21, 2012 / Growth and Social Protection Government and commercial farmers in South Africa have responded to a new report on the living and working conditions of farmworkers by criticising its methodology. Provocatively entitled 'Ripe with Abuse', the report by Human Rights Watch documents violations of minimum
A new development paradigm? China and Brazil in African agriculture
May 16, 2012 / China and Brazil in African Agriculture The growing visibility of the BRICS countries in international development cooperation has led to claims that they represent a challenge to the development paradigm, emphasising distinctive characteristics of horizontality, solidarity, mutual learning and partnership. Yet, beyond the political rhetoric, it
Video: Different genders, different interests?
May 3, 2012 / Gender & Social Difference How are the interests of young men and women similar or different, from an agriculture policy perspective? What are their priorities? We asked FAC researchers and experts in youth policy and agriculture to address this question, in a series of
About our work on Brazil and China in Africa
May 2, 2012 / China and Brazil in African Agriculture The Future Agricultures Consortium is addressing the question of how the 'rising powers', including the BRICS countries, are changing agricultural development in Africa. Our research project China and Brazil in African Agriculture aims to document and critically analyse the experiences
Young People and Agri-Food: Small Grant Competition 2012-2013
April 27, 2012 / Young People & Agrifood Call for ApplicationsDeadline: 15 June 2012 The Future Agriculture Consortium, through its Young People and Agri-Food theme, seeks to address three constraints to more appropriate policy in relation to the “young people and agriculture” problem in Africa: A lack of
About the Gender & Social Difference theme
April 26, 2012 / Gender & Social Difference The Gender & Social Difference work of Future Agricultures covers learning across the FAC thematic research programmes. It is based on the widespread perception that ongoing social, economic, political, and environmental change processes in agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa are leading
“Green Grabs” journal issue
April 25, 2012 / Land A special issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies, published this week, explores the controversial issue of 'green grabbing' – the appropriation of land and resources for environmental ends. The vigorous debate on 'land grabbing' already highlights instances where 'green'
Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa (PEAPA)
April 19, 2012 / Policy Processes Debates on the appropriate role for the state in stimulating agricultural development should be linked to an assessment of the capacity and willingness of the state to implement particular policies in particular country contexts. The Political Economy of Agricultural Policy
Commercialisation research updates: Tanzania and Ethiopia
April 18, 2012 / Pathways to Commercialisation Two research updates have been published from the Commercialisation theme. They provide an update on our case studies in Tanzania and Ethiopia, examining how small farmers have been able to take opportunities to commercialise under different conditions.
Video: What is Seasonality?
April 16, 2012 / Growth and Social Protection In this video, two contributors to the book Seasonality, Rural Livelihoods and Development - Robert Chambers and Stephen Devereux - explain why seasonality has been neglected and why it is important for policy. Watch the video on YouTube
Policy Briefs: Seeds, Agro-dealers and Political Economy
April 11, 2012 / Science, Technology and Innovation Six new Policy Briefs shed light on the political economy of seeds in Kenya, Malawi, Ghana, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe. They arise from the work of the Science, Technology and Innovation theme of the Future Agricultures Consortium. These Policy Briefs also
LDPI Small Grants 2012: Recipients
March 16, 2012 / Land The Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI) has announced the awards of its Small Grants programme for 2012. The LDPI is a network to promote 'engaged research' on the recent explosion of (trans) national commercial and corporation-driven land transactions. Out of