by Jim Sumberg, John Thompson, Ken Giller and Jens Andersson Agriculture, and the agronomic research that supports it, will be critical in making sustainable, equitable and secure development a reality….
Contested Agronomy: more heat than light?
Video: Dominic Glover on agricultural biotech and smallholder farmers
STEPS member Dominic Glover spoke yesterday at the FAO’s International Symposium on “The Role of Agricultural Biotechnologies in Sustainable Food Systems and Nutrition”. Dominic’s presentation focused on the need to…
From Dragon Heads to Farm Drops, Chinese agriculture has many faces
In Beijing last week, STEPS member Adrian Ely hosted a roundtable with social enterprises, NGOs and firms involved in food and agriculture to discuss the findings of the Low Carbon…
India’s seed sector is flourishing. Could African farmers benefit?
Africa’s farmers need quality seeds but the seed sector in Africa has often struggled to meet this need. The continent’s share in the global seed trade is very low, seed…
Africa’s land rush
There is a rush on for African farmland – a phenomenon unmatched since colonial times. Africa’s land rush, and the implications for rural livelihoods and agrarian change, is the subject of a…
Sharing the Open Source Seed Initiative at STEPS América Latina
by Claire Luby, Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) Claire Luby presented her work at the STEPS América Latina launch event in November 2015, as part of a panel on ‘horizontal…
Why livelihoods perspectives still matter
Livelihoods perspectives have become increasingly central to discussions of rural development over the past few decades. They have offered a way of integrating sectoral concerns and rooting development in the…
How can African agriculture adapt to an uncertain climate?
By Stephen Whitfield, Lecturer: Climate Change & Food Security, University of Leeds Often operating at the margins of sustainability, for smallholder farming systems in Africa the challenge of adapting to uncertain climatic change is particularly…
Hunger and HIV: have we misread the landscape?
Some of the most important questions we have concern large and extreme events of which we have little experience and few examples. We don’t learn nearly as much as we…
New book: Sustainable Livelihoods and Rural Development
Livelihoods are a vital lens on rural development, but should be examined in the context of wider questions of political economy. A new book by STEPS director Ian Scoones looks…