IFPRI 2011 Global Food Policy Report

23 April 2012. The 2011 Global Food Policy Report, a new flagship publication recently launched by the International Food Policy Research Institute, presents a broad picture of the year’s food policy issues as well as areas that require future attention.

Based on rigorous research, the Global Food Policy Report is designed specifically to provide an overview of 2011 and an outlook for 2012 for non-technical audiences. For the international community, the 2011 Global Food Policy Report makes a number of specific recommendations:

• The G20 should do more to reduce competition between biofuel and food production and discourage trade restrictions that exacerbate price swings. 
• The international community should consolidate global and regional agricultural growth strategies and create or strengthen the institutions needed to make these strategies work. 
• Rio+20 conference participants should integrate economic, social, and environmental sustainability in their discussions and commit to concrete action on long-term development challenges, including poor nutrition, degraded soils, and scarce water. 
• A broad intersectoral coalition should work together to address nutrition, food, and health issues.

• Launch Seminar: April 23
• Full Report
• Preview booklet: English | Français
• Media materials
• All related video

Download in PDF

• Full Report (PDF 7.6M)
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Increasing Agricultural Productivity & Enhancing Food Security in Africa

Synopsis of the international conference held 1-3 November 2011 in Addis Ababa

2nd April 2012. IFPRI. (34 pages) The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), in conjunction with the African Union Commission, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the Forum for Agricultural Research for Africa (FARA), organized an international conference on November 1–3, 2011, titled “Increasing Agricultural Productivity and Enhancing Food Security in Africa: New Challenges and Opportunities” in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

This conference provided a forum for the exchange of ideas, experiences, and innovations on improving agricultural productivity for achieving food security in Africa by: (i) showcasing research results on the trends, determinants, constraints, and opportunities for improving agricultural productivity in Africa within the framework of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), national agricultural and rural development strategies, and investment plans; (ii) identifying areas for policy actions, further research, and innovations toward enhancing food security and reducing poverty in the continent; and (iii) encouraging appropriate communication strategies for conveying and implementing research results that improve agricultural productivity, enhance food security, and reduce rural poverty in Africa.

See PAEPARD blog post: Increasing Agricultural Productivity and Enhancing Food Security in Africa: New Challenges and Opportunities

Increasing Agricultural Productivity and Enhancing Food Security in Africa: New Challenges and Opportunities

The November 1–3 conference “Increasing Agricultural Productivity and Enhancing Food Security in Africa: New Challenges and Opportunities,” was co-organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the African Union Commission (AUC), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA). Speakers and participants showcased opportunities to improve agricultural productivity and explored how they can be effectively implemented through the framework of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme.

Experts at the conference also examined issues related to:

• science, technology, and innovation in agriculture;
• rural services and access to inputs;
• markets, trade, and regional integration and value chains;
• investments, institutions, and policies for supporting agriculture;
• agriculture, nutrition, and health linkages;
• agriculture and climate change mitigation and adaptation;
• capacity development for agriculture through education and training; and
• the nexus of agriculture and the rural nonfarm sector in growth and poverty reduction

The keynote address - ‘harnessing the potential of science and the numbers’ was given by FARA’s Monty Jones. He emphasized the need for ‘radical approaches’ and ‘radical actions.’ Africa should come up with its own unique interventions, he said, and listen to the voices of the 600 million African farmers.

Stephen Muchiri of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation said:

“The major challenge in increasing agriculture productivity in Africa is low agro investment, markets are not well developed, there are market restrictions, farmers can’t easily access the market, and they don’t have power to have their own markets. If there is no access to markets, the entire value chain will be affected. Markets are the way to boost research, input, credit facilities and risk mitigation. When farmers are involved in value chains they are going to be able to access market information that helps them prepare their production in ways that suit market demand.”

Keynote Speech by Yusuf Abubakar, ARCN. Strengthening capacity for agricultural science and technology in Africa


Keynote Speech by Namanga Ngongi, AGRA. Delivering African agricultural productivity and food security through a Green Revolution: prospects and challenges

Role of food and agriculture research at the UN high level meeting September 19-20

On September 7th, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) hosted a seminar and panel discussion about the role that food and agriculture research can, and should, play in the high level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on September 19-20. It was a continuation of their large “Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health 2020 Conference,” held in New Delhi, India, this past February.

IFPRI's seminar last week is a continuation of their conference in New Delhi this past February, focusing on leveraging agriculture to improve global health. (Image Credit: IFPRI)

Last week’s seminar addressed the alarming escalation of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in developing nations. Once perceived as threats only to developed countries, conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, lung disease, and cancer actually afflict a higher proportion of people in poorer areas of the world. As many as 80 percent of NCD deaths occur in developing countries.

The upcoming United Nations’ high level meeting [19 and 20 September 2011 in New York] is only the second ever to focus on a health issue (the first focused on communicable diseases – HIV/AIDS – in 2001). Many view this as an opportunity to shift focus and funding toward NCDs.  To see videos of all three presentations, follow this link. Click here for more information on the UN high level meeting. 


Presentation by Tim Lang, City University London, at the IFPRI Policy Seminar, "Leveraging Agriculture to Tackle Noncommunicable Diseases," Sept. 7, 2011, Washington, DC

NCDs, Agriculture and Food

View more presentations from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

G20 lacked the teeth to bite the neck of the crisis, according to food experts and NGOs

Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur
on the Right to Food

24 June 2011 (IRIN) - The agriculture ministers of major economies, rich as well as emerging, meeting for the first time as the world verges on another food crisis in only four years, have disappointed. Their decisions, summed up in a 24-page Action Plan on Food Price Volatility and Agriculture, lacked the teeth to bite the neck of the crisis, according to food experts and NGOs. 

That the agreement was reached at all was a tribute to French agriculture minister Bruno Le Maire, who chaired the meeting, said Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. The action plan dealt with the symptoms and not the causes of the current crisis. “There is much more that could be done,” he told IRIN. 

2011 began with food prices as high as they were during the 2007/08 crisis. Erratic weather, speculators, conflicts, trade restrictions, the cost of fuel and the use of food grains to produce bioethanol all played their part in keeping food, including all the major staple food grains, expensive. The world was looking to the G20 countries for decisive leadership. 

Shenggen Fan, director-general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a US-based think-tank, who was in Paris for the meeting, said the G20 did not identify the "most pressing priorities", nor provide details on how to deal with them to help everyone move beyond "words and rhetoric to action and implementation". 
“Fixing the global food system and ending the food price crisis requires major surgery, yet the G20 produced little more than a sticking-plaster," said Jean-Cyril Dagorn, a policy advisor to the Oxfam aid agency.


Related:

21/06/2011

Bruno LE MAIRE, Ministre de l’Agriculture, de l’Alimentation, de la Pêche, de la Ruralité et de l’Aménagement du Territoire, a reçu lundi 20 juin 2011 les principales organisations non gouvernementales, associations et fondations mobilisées sur l’agriculture et la sécurité alimentaire mondiales.

Deux jours avant la première réunion des ministres de l’agriculture du G20, à Paris les 22 et 23 juin 2011, Bruno LE MAIRE a présenté les travaux menés par le G20 depuis 8 mois, en vue de l’adoption d’un plan d’action sur la volatilité des prix agricoles et l’agriculture.
Outre les organisations non gouvernementales que Bruno LE MAIRE recevait pour la deuxième fois, la société civile a été étroitement associée aux travaux de la présidence française du G20 en matière agricole :

• 120 organisations agricoles et paysannes de 75 pays, réunies à Paris les 16 et 17 juin, ont ainsi lancé un appel en faveur de la prise en compte du caractère prioritaire et spécifique de l’agriculture mondiale au G20 ;
• le Forum économique global de Davos a organisé le 6 juin 2011 avec la présidence française du G20 un séminaire sur la contribution du secteur privé au G20 agricole, auquel participaient 50 entreprises et organisations internationales.

Liste des organisations participantes :
ACF Action contre la faim
ACTION AID USA
ACTION AID BRESIL
ACTION AID INTERNATIONAL
ACTION AID-PEUPLES SOLIDAIRES
ADECIA (Agence pour le Développement de la Coopération Internationale dans les domaines de l’Agriculture, de l’Alimentation et des espaces ruraux)
AFDI (Agriculteurs Français et Développement international)
AGIR abcd (Action de Bénévoles pour la Coopération et le Développement)
CCFD (Comité Catholique contre la Faim et pour le Développement)
CIHEAM (Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes)
COORDINATION SUD
CRID Centre de Recherche et d’Information pour le Développement
FARM (Fondation pour l’Agriculture et la Ruralité dans le Monde)
GRET (Groupe de Recherches et d’Echanges Technologiques)
INTER-RESEAUX (Inter-Réseaux Développement Rural)
MOMAGRI (Mouvement pour une Organisation Mondiale de l’Agriculture)
OXFAM FRANCE
OXFAM MEXIQUE

Announcement: Agricultural R&D: Investing in Africa’s Future

ASTI, together with the International Food Policy Report Institute (IFPRI), where ASTI is based, and the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), is convening a conference on agricultural R&D in Africa focused on the following themes: 1. Levels and Stability of Agricultural R&D Investments; 2. Human Resource Development of Agricultural R&D; 3. Aligning and Rationalizing Institutional Structures; and 4. Measuring and Improving the Effectiveness of R&D Systems.

The conference, which will take place December 5-7, 2011 in Accra, Ghana, is invitation only. Papers will be posted on the ASTI website. Organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA).

New Report on Agricultural Research and Development (R&D) in Africa

Apr 7, 2011 by IFPRI

Overall investment in R&D increased by more than 20 percent from 2001-2008, but most of this growth occurred in only a handful of countries and spending actually declined in many others.

Press Release

New Study Shows Agricultural R&D in Africa Hindered by Significant Challenges
Download: English | Français | Kiswahili

Factsheet

Country Facts: Key Trends in Agricultural Research and Development (R&D) since 2000
Download: English | Français

For more detailed information on individual countries, you can access longer Country Notes at: http://www.asti.cgiar.org/countries (and click on Sub-Saharan Africa)

Report

African Agricultural R&D in the New Millennium: Progress for Some, Challenges for Many
April 2011. IFPRI Food Policy Report.
Download: English | Français

Graphs

• Absolute Levels of R&D Spending and Staffing by Country
• Spending: Overall and Countries with Greatest Increases & Decreases
• Spending: Annual Growth Rates by Country

Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health: IFPRI 2020 conference in India

February 10 - 12, 2011 Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health: IFPRI 2020 conference at a glance

Download 2020 Conference at a Glance: PDF format 860K) or PPT format (1.5M)

Presentations on Africa:
2A. Cutting Health Risks Along the Value Chain
Incentives to Develop Consumer Demand for Quality Food: Supply Perspectives

Apollo O. Owuor, Agronomy Manager, Kenya Horticultural Exporters Ltd, Kenya

Summary Note

2B. Learning from Country Case Studies

Ghana: Anna Lartey, Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Ghana and President-Elect, International Union of Nutritional Sciences (2009-2013), Ghana

Summary Note | Presentation

Panel Discussion: Innovative Approaches and Initiatives for Better Linking Agriculture, Nutrition, and Health

View all video from this panel

Ajay Vashee, President, Zambia National Farmers Union, Zambia

Summary Note

Ministerial Panel

Agnes M. Kalibata, Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Rwanda

Parallel Session 4A: Africa:

Chair: Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union, Ethiopia

Summary Note

Perspectives from

Rosanna Agble, Former Chief Nutrition Officer, Ghana Health Service, Ministry of Health, Ghana

Summary Note

Tola Atinmo, Professor, Department of Human Nutrition, University of Ibadan and President, Federation of African Nutrition Societies (FANUS), Nigeria

Summary Note

Joyce Kinabo, Associate Professor, Department of Food Science and Technology, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania

Summary Note

Ismael Thiam, Program Officer, Non-Communicable Diseases and Nutrition and Food Security, West African Health Organization (WAHO)of The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Burkina Faso

Summary Note

Milla McLachlan, Professor, Division of Human Nutrition, Faculty of Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, South Africa

Summary Note

Rapporteur: Catherine Riungu, Journalist, Nation Media Group, Kenya

Video remarks from Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate in Literature from Nigeria, at the IFPRI 2020 Conference on "Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health," February 11, 2011, New Delhi, India.

Successes in African agriculture: Lessons for the future

Edited by Steven Haggblade and Peter B.R.Hazell 
Published for IFPRI by The John Hopkins University Press 
Website: www.press.jhu.edu 
2010, 436pp, ISBN 978 0 80189 503 6(Pb), US$45

To read of widespread and sustained successes in African agriculture is rare indeed yet, as the contributors to this book convincingly describe, not only is success possible but the means of achieving success may be readily identified.

The aim of the book, commissioned by IFPRI, is to demonstrate that the sustained decline in Africa's agricultural productivity over past decades can be arrested; with the current concerns about global food security, the replicable successes analysed deserve to be widely disseminated, boosting morale as well as productivity. As Joachim von Braun, concludes in his foreword, "We believe that the time is ripe to review, reflect, and build upon what has worked well in the past."

Following an editorial overview of the challenges facing African agriculture, six 'success stories' are detailed; cassava transformation in West and Southern Africa; hybrid maize in East and Southern Africa; Mali's cotton revolution; horticultural exports in Kenya and Côte d'Ivoire; smallholder dairying in East Africa; and soil fertility management systems. The book concludes with a summary of lessons and draws out implications for future planning and action.

Sub-Saharan strategies for climate change adaptation

IFPRI has just published a review of the strategies that the 10 countries that make up ASARECA, the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa, plan to use to adapt to climate change. Only two strategies are common to all 10 countries: “the development and promotion of drought-tolerant and early-maturing crop species and exploitation of new and renewable energy sources”. Leave aside that the second strategy encompasses biofuels, and there’s still something else striking about the strategies. Burundi recognizes the conservation of genetic resources as an important strategy although this is also potentially important for dealing with drought. 

Food Security Portal: An Innovative Approach to Food Security at Country Level

This open access policy information portal has been established to provide comprehensive and detailed information country-by-country on food policy developments. 

Currently a lot of information is being collected in an un-coordinated fashion by different international and regional organizations. This portal is designed to pool such information in structured ways and check for data quality and relevance. 

The portal will contain relevant food crisis response information initially on its 20 partner countries (mostly in Sub-Sahara Africa, but also in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean) and shall be expanded beyond these pre-selected countries in the context of the project. The portal also includes a research-based capacity-strengthening “tool box” that will be developed to guide country responses. Where needed, advice on urgently needed policy actions will also be facilitated.

African partner countries:

• Chad: Ministère du Développement Rural
• DR Congo: Institut National pour l'Étude et la Recherche Agronomiques
• Kenya: Kenya Agricultural Research Institute
• Liberia: University of Liberia, College of Agriculture and Forestry (CAF)
• Madagascar: Centre National de la Recherche Appliquee au Developpement Rural (FOFIFA )
• Malawi: Bunda College of Agriculture, University of Malawi
• Mozambique : Institute of Agrarian Research in Mozambique (IIAM)
• Nigeria: Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources
• Tanzania: Economic and Social Research Foundation

Copenhagen and Beyond: Three Perspectives on Agriculture and Climate Change

Jan 19, 2010.  Washington DC. IFPRI Policy Seminar, "Copenhagen and Beyond: Three Perspectives on Agriculture and Climate Change," held Jan 19, 2010.

The climate change negotiations in Copenhagen:
A. failed miserably,
B. were rescued at the last minute, or
C. resulted in a promising set of new initiatives that will ultimately lead to a binding international treaty.

William Hohenstein (USDA), David Waskow (Oxfam), and Gerald Nelson (IFPRI) provided perspectives on which of these three outcomes ultimately prevailed, how to remove the brackets in the negotiating text, and what the future might hold for policies and programs for agricultural climate change adaptation and mitigation.

William Hohenstein serves as the Director of the Climate Change Program Office (CCPO) at the USDA. The CCPO serves as a focal point for support to the Secretary of Agriculture on the causes and consequences of climate change, as well as for strategies for addressing climate change.



David Waskow is the Climate Change Program Director in the Washington office of Oxfam America. He was previously the international program director at Friends of the Earth - US.



Gerald Nelson is a Senior Research Fellow in IFPRI’s Environment and Production Technology Division.




Question and Answer Session at the IFPRI Policy Seminar, "Copenhagen and Beyond: Three Perspectives on Agriculture and Climate Change,"

Will a time of plenty for agricultural research help to feed the world?

6 January 2010. Hereafter follows a short summary of the latest issue of LINK - Learning, INnovation and Knowledge.

Much more than increased spending on agricultural research is required and that what is now needed is a prominent development investor that will champion the idea of research as an integrated part of a more broadly-conceived capacity for change.

A 2006 World Bank study of agricultural innovation processes and capacities concluded that:

Agricultural innovation is rarely driven by research and is usually opportunity-driven, with entrepreneurs (micro or corporate) responding to market opportunities and threats

• Underpinning the capacity of these entrepreneurs to innovate is the network in which they are embedded and which they use as a way of accessing knowledge, information and technology — information about the changing state of the market, about new technology and about expertise to address opportunities and threats
• Poorly-developed linkages among players with complementary information are the major constraints to innovation capacity and this is often related to long

A recent analysis by the International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI, of the circumstances under which agricultural research makes a difference, tacitly makes some broadly similar conclusions about the supporting (rather than leading) role of research in agricultural innovation.

How can partnerships and consortia arrangements be financed, since these are often transient and rarely legal entities? There certainly are things that can be invested in (see the September 2009 LINK LOOK, “Rethinking Investment in Agricultural Innovation”) and this includes things like sector coordinating bodies, farmers’ associations and other areas of institutional development that nurture networking and social capital formation. This is, however, a fragmented type of investment that has high administrative costs that are ill-suited to aid wholesalers.

RIU projects in Africa are experimenting with ways of strengthening innovation capacity by connecting up different pieces of the innovation systems in which they are working. The programme struggled initially to work out how to explore the research into use question. It is now starting to build evidence that suggests that rather than simply promoting researchproducts what is more valuable is linking the research process to activities led by entrepreneurs and other users of new ideas.

But while the contemporary views outlined above point to the need to view research as acomplementary tool to development activities, development practice still maintains firmadministrative and operational distinctions between the two. There are signs that some development investors can see that the problems of food security and coping with climate change require more than just research.

Reference: Will a time of plenty for agricultural research help to feed the world?

Related:
Multi-stakeholder processes for knowledge-based rural innovation
25 January 2010 - 30 April 2010
International Centre for development oriented Research in Agriculture - ICRA
This course is a professional capacity strengthening programme for enhancing performance in rural innovation.

Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development

12 November. Launch of the book Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agriculture.

Millions Fed' is a project aimed to identify and examine successes in agricultural development and provide insights into the lessons they offer. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) called upon the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to assess the evidence on what works in agriculture -- what sorts of policies, programs, and investments in agricultural development have actually reduced hunger and poverty.

Trailer and full video for "Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development"

Related:
IAALD 13/11/2009 Communicating a new research output: IFPRI strategies
What does it take to create a buzz around a new research output? Luz Marina Alvare and Chris Addison share some insights into the communication and knowledge-sharing approaches followed by IFPRI in launching this new book.

Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development

To examine past successes in agricultural development and draw out the lessons they offer, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) documented evidence on what works in agriculture—what sorts of policies, programs, and investments in agricultural development have actually reduced hunger and poverty.

The findings and lessons from this report will be shared broadly. The final publications include complete technical background papers, a booklet with summary narratives, and a book with detailed narratives called Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development. All materials will be available from the IFPRI web site on November 12, 2009.

The case studies of success for the Millions Fed project were chosen through a rigorous process that included an open call for nominations, a wide-ranging literature review, an expert opinion poll, and key informant interviews. More than 250 case studies were nominated or identified. Using a comprehensive set of criteria that took into account such issues as scale, time and duration, impact, and sustainability, the project identified 19 proven successes that have had a demonstrated and significant impact on food security and poverty in developing countries.

These successes in developing-country agriculture are rich and diverse in nature. The pathways to success spanned six different areas:

1. intensifying staple food production;
2. integrating people and the environment;
3. expanding the role of markets;
4. diversifying out of major cereals;
5. reforming economy-wide policies;
6. and improving food quality and human nutrition.

Millions Fed: Pathways to Prosperity. This video showcases two successful projects—one in India, another in Africa—that are helping small farmers increase their productivity and incomes, and ultimately providing a path out of hunger and poverty.

Investments in agriculture provide a path for small farmers to prosper; improved seeds, new tools and training, and access to markets can lead to better, healthier lives. Learn about two successful projects—one in Uganda, one in India—that are having a significant impact on farmer productivity and are helping millions lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.

India: Leaving the Plow BehindOver-working of the land in India has led to soil depleted of nutrients. Learn how small farmers are adopting a new method, known as "zero tillage" to help retain nutrients and water, making their farms sustainable for the future.

The Green Revolution changed farmers' lives in India in the 1970s, increasing their crop yield by nearly 70% and allowing farmers to become self-sufficient. Due to over-tilling, however, the soil became depleted of nutrients. Learn how zero-tillage farming methods being used today are helping to retain nutrients and water by decreasing disturbance in the soil.

Uganda: Combating Cassava Mosaic DiseaseCassava has long been a staple crop in Africa, used for both food and income by most poor farmers. Learn how farmers and scientists have worked together to bring it back from the brink of destruction.

When a disease threatened to wipe out a staple crop, researchers and farmers worked together to develop a new variety of cassava that would be able to resist the disease.

15th Annual Meeting of the Neuchâtel Initiative

18 - 22 September 2009. The 15th Annual meeting of the Neuchâtel Initiative (NI) was held near Assisi, Italy.

The meeting was organized by the Research and Extension Division of the FAO. The Objectives of the NI meeting were:

• Review the process of the MOAAS proposal
• Review the role and coordination needs in extension to deliver development impacts at scale in the new framework of Agricultural Research and Development (input to GCARD, March 2010
• Evolution of NI: Towards a Global Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (GFAAS)
• Elaborate a joint program for 2010
• Exchange, learn and network A preparatory meeting took place in Steinfurth/Germany on 23 and 24 July 2009 to discuss a renewed international effort to promote a global think tank for agricultural advisory services (AAS).

Following organizations were involved: African Forum of Agricultural advisory Services (AFAAS), Swiss Association for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas Agridea, Danish Agricultural Advisory Services (DAAS), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR), German Development Cooperation GTZ, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) and the World Bank.

References:

• The draft programme
• Engineers withouth borders posting from Italy: see below extracts:

Paul Van Mele works for CGIAR as a program leader on learning and innovation systems. His great passion (apart from rice, the value chain he directly works in all throughout west africa) is new media for extension services. He has been studying the possibility to offer effective radio and video extension, based on farmer to farmer exchanges. The videos are being translatetd into local languages and showed on market days after a radio broadcast has advertized for them.His main challenges: media people don't really have incentive to cover farmer innovation stories. They're not hot and juicy news like a car accident would be. So they ask for money to record things, and that slows down the diffusion process...

Max Olupot works for AFAAS, the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services. It's basically a network of African practitionners of extension services to farmers. It's really exciting, because to my knowledge, all those networks so far have been western driven and donor "stirred". This one isn't! The guy is amazing, a great listener, and has shown tremendous tenacity. It's been 3 years that the funding they have been promised by the european union should have come through and every month it's going to be next month. They are setting up country chapters where information and best practices on AAS will be shared. It's an initiative that ties nicely into what Sarah and I are doing in our respective strategies. So we've made contact with him and said we'd do our part to make it happen in Ghana and Burkina!

The consequences of climate change for poor farmers in Africa

Two new IFPRI research papers focus on the consequences of climate change for poor farmers in Africa and provide policymakers with adaptation strategies.

Two new IFPRI research papers focus on the consequences of climate change for poor farmers in Africa and provide policymakers with adaptation strategies.

Economywide Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa analyzes two possible climate change adaptation options for the region. The paper uses two scenarios: the first doubles the irrigated area in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2050 but keeps total crop area constant; and the second scenario increases both rainfed and irrigated crop yields by 25 percent for all Sub-Saharan African countries. Due to the limited initial irrigated area in the region, an increase in agricultural productivity achieves better outcomes than an expansion of irrigated area. Both scenarios help lower world food prices, stimulating national and international food markets.

Soil and Water Conservation Technologies: A Buffer against Production Risk in the Face of Climate Change? investigates the impact of different soil and water conservation technologies on the variance of crop production in Ethiopia to determine the risks of the different technologies for different regions and rainfall zones. The results show that soil and water conservation technologies have significant impacts on reducing production risk in Ethiopia and could be part of the country’s climate-proofing strategy. However, one-size-fits-all recommendations are not appropriate, so policymakers will have to use careful geographical targeting when identifying appropriate agricultural practices to act as a buffer against climate change.

Refererences:
IFPRI blog 22/07/09

CAADP calls for more private sector involvement

June 17 to 18, 2009 in Dakar Senegal. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) brought together representatives of the public and private sectors, including farmer’s organizations, development partners and civil society to propose a framework for integrating the private sector into the CAADP Agenda.

The workshop was aimed at creating specific public-private alliances in the areas of smallholder-friendly value chain development through enterprise growth and finance in major commodity sectors for the purposes of boosting economic growth and competitiveness.

• Deliberations were held on how regional and domestic market development through policy reforms, institutional innovations, and infrastructure investments could be directed towards raising supply, improving quality whilst also reducing the cost of moving modern inputs and products across local and trans-border markets.
• Participants at the workshop were also keen to explore the issue of institutional development and capacity building to overcome tariff and technical barriers to accessing global markets.
• The meeting reflected on the value of existing partnerships, alliances and developments such as those concerning the Hewlett Infrastructure Project, ReSAKSS, AGRA’s announcement of an agreement with Standard Bank and private equity investments in agri-related projects.
• It is within this context that the key issue of public sector investment in support CAADP was also reviewed with many participants arguing that African agricultural stakeholders and leaders need to push for more private-public partnerships in agriculture in order to sustain Africa’s recovery plan.

Participants at the workshop included CMA / AOC, the Government of Senegal, AU / NEPAD / ECOWAS, the World Bank, IFPRI, USAID, AfDB, ECA, the private sector, AGRA, FAO, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the EU and farmers organizations.