Future Agricultures: from broad themes to practical policy
Early in the new century a consensus on agricultural and rural development emerged thatprovided renewed impetus to efforts to boost both agricultural development and the rural nonfarmeconomy, in a context of ever closer rural-urban linkages and globalisation. Bothgovernments and donors have committed themselves to support this.The challenge has been to translate themes into practical policy. For two years the FutureAgricultures Consortium, supported by DFID, has been investigating how to do this,primarily in Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi.This set of meetings presents of the results of this work. It also includes the World Bankpresenting the 2008 World Development Report on Agriculture and Development, and twosessions on the way forward and whether or not emerging challenges from biofuels, climatechange, and the growth of China and India imply that the agenda needs radical revision.