by Jim Sumberg, Stephen Whitfield and Ken Giller How do we understand farms as systems, and farms as part of systems? The terms and definitions that researchers use affect how…
A new way of bringing ‘farms’ and ‘systems’ together
Good & evil: two articles on closing down the debate on GM crops
Is it right to call opponents of GM crops ‘wicked’? In a recent interview, Owen Paterson denounced in starkly moralistic language people whom he sees as holding up progress on…
Responses to frequently asked questions on genetically-modified crops and development
GM Rice / BASF / Flickr Creative Commons By Andy Stirling, co-director of the STEPS Centre Questions are never far from the headlines about how the world can farm more fairly,…
GM crops and biotechnology
GM crops, Golden Rice and other related technologies polarise opinion: they are the solution to the global food crisis; or they are ‘frankenfoods’ causing irreversible environmental harm. Concerns about poverty,…
How was a ‘policy space’ created for pastoralism in Kenya?
Pastoralism in Kenya has long been neglected and understood. Pastoralists have been seen by some as vulnerable, a source of conflict and a drain on the country’s resources. But recent…
Against ‘monocultures’ in agriculture and knowledge
Faced with the undeniable fact of hunger in developing countries, ‘sustainable intensification’ has been claimed as a science-led solution to food security. In an article for SciDev.Net, Prof Brian Wynne…
IDS Bulletin: China and Brazil in African Agriculture
New research published by the Institute of Development Studies, and jointly edited by STEPS co-director Ian Scoones, reveals the realities of how the BRICS and Africa are engaging in agricultural…
Getting the facts right on land grabs: 5 new (free) articles
As part of its series on land grabs, The Journal of Peasant Studies has released a collection of 5 new articles on the problem of recording accurate and reliable information…
Irrigation isn’t the only way to achieve food security in Ghana
Farmers attending their livestock in Northern Ghana (2012) by Ericsson Images / Flickr By Rachael Taylor, PhD studentSPRU, University of Sussex Earlier this month, a number of Members of the…
‘Golden Rice’ and the GM crop debate
Golden Rice grain compared to white rice grain in screenhouse of Golden Rice plants / IRRI Guest blog by Sally Brooks, Researcher and Associate Tutor at the University of York, and…