March 2013

Debates continue among policymakers and academics about the relative merits of large and small farms. Recent transnational investments in commercial agriculture have prompted the resurgence of plantations and other forms of large-scale commercial agriculture.

This research update summarises the project Land and Agricultural Commercialisation in Africa (LACA), outlining the research questions, methodology, areas of work and planned outputs. The project runs until 2015, with field work on case studies in Ghana, Kenya and Zambia. It is supported by an Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) – DFID Joint Poverty Alleviation Bid under the ‘Resource Scarcity, Growth and Poverty Reduction’ Theme of 2012-2015.