Foot and Mouth Disease and Market Access: Challenges for the Beef Industry in Southern Africa

Focusing on the case of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in southern Africa – and specifically Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe – this paper explores the economic, social and…

Avian Influenza: Science, Policy and Politics

Open access chapter You can download an Open Access chapter of the book for free. This is the Accepted Manuscript of Chapter 1: The International Response to Avian Influenza: Science,…

Living in Parallel Worlds? Bridging Formal and Informal Seed Systems (maize briefing 6)

In semi-arid areas of Eastern Kenya many small-scale farmers plant local maize seed, saved from the previous year, or obtained from within the community, rather than purchase commercial seed from…

MCM (Multi-Criteria Mapping) Maize Project Method (maize briefing 3)

In the course of the STEPS maize project, the research team, which included both Kenyan and UK-based researchers, met and talked at length with a diverse range of farmers in…

Getting the Value Without the High Risk? The Rise of Horticulture in Sakai (maize briefing 7)

One of the success stories in Kenya’s agricultural  sector has been the rise of the horticultural industry,  which has shown remarkable growth both in the  domestic and export markets Despite…

Environmental Change and Maize Innovation in Kenya: Exploring Pathways In and Out of Maize

This paper summarises the findings of the STEPS Environmental Change and Maize Innovation in Kenya project. Maize is an important staple crop in Kenya, socially, politically and economically. This project…

Amazonian Dark Earths in Africa?

This book chapter offers preliminary evidence concerning the existence of dark earth analogues in one part of West Africa and uses this to probe the historical and ecological arguments that…

Cambodia’s Victim Zero: Global and National Responses to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Cambodia’s experience with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) since the disease was discovered on a farm outside Phnom Penh in January 2004 reveals important aspects of how a developing country…

Addressing the Dynamics of Agri-Food Systems

The ‘modernist’ project that has come to dominate food and agricultural policy has failed to provide sustainable outcomes for many poor people in developing countries. Conventional agricultural science is not…