This book is the first comprehensive exploration of key emerging issues facing developing-country agriculture today, from rapid urbanization to rural transformation to climate change. In this four-part volume, top experts offer the latest research in the field of agricultural development. Using new lenses to examine today’s biggest challenges, contributors address topics such as nutrition and health, gender and household decision-making, agrifood value chains, natural resource management, and political economy. The book also covers most developing regions, providing a critical global perspective at a time when many pressing challenges extend beyond national borders. Tying all this together, Agricultural Development explores policy options and strategies for developing sustainable agriculture and reducing food insecurity and malnutrition.

The changing global landscape combined with new and better data, technologies, and understanding means that agriculture can and must contribute to a wider range of development outcomes than ever before, including reducing poverty, ensuring adequate nutrition, creating strong food value chains, improving environmental sustainability, and promoting gender equity and equality.

Agricultural Development: New Perspectives in a Changing World, with its unprecedented breadth and scope, will be an indispensable resource for the next generation of policymakers, researchers, and students dedicated to improving agriculture for global wellbeing. 

Table of contents:

Part I: A Global Overview of Agriculture

• Ch. 1 Agricultural Development in a Changing World 

• Ch. 2 Global Issues in Agricultural Development 

Part II: Regional Issues in Agricultural Development

• Ch. 3 Changing Farm Size and Agricultural Development in East Asia 

• Ch. 4 Agricultural Development and Modernization in South Asia 

• Ch. 5 Africa’s Unfolding Agricultural Transformation 

• Ch. 6 Duality, Urbanization, and Modernization of Agrifood Systems in Latin America and the Caribbean 

• Ch. 7 Agricultural Development and Food Security in Eastern Europe and Central Asia 

• Ch. 8 Regional Experiences: What Have We Learned?

Part III: Context for Agricultural Development

• Ch. 9 Agricultural Growth, Urbanization, and Poverty Reduction 

• Ch. 10 Agriculture and Undernutrition 

• Ch. 11 Transformation of the Rural Economy 

• Ch. 12 Food Value Chain Transformation in Developing Regions 

• Ch. 13 Agricultural Development and International Trade 

• Ch. 14 The Political Economy of Agricultural and Food Policies 

• Ch. 15 Gender, Household Behavior, and Rural Development 

• Ch. 16 Credit for Agricultural Development 

• Ch. 17 Agricultural Insurance for Development: Past, Present, and Future 

• Ch. 18 Natural Resource Management and Resource Rights for Agriculture

Part IV: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities in Agricultural Development

• Ch. 19 Climate Change and Agricultural Development

• Ch. 20 The Role of Water in Supporting Food Security: Where We Are and Where We Need to Go

• Ch. 21 Future of Agricultural Research 

• Ch. 22 Reshaping Agrifood Systems to Achieve Multiple Development Goals

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This book explores the role of agriculture in long-term economic growth. With a particular focus on Ethiopia, the role of the state in igniting agricultural growth and in sustaining economic growth is highlighted as essential for low-income countries. Taking ideas from both economic history and development economics, the ability of Ethiopia and the rest of Africa to sustain recent rapid growth into something that can tackle the development agenda is discussed, alongside policy suggestions.

This book overall presents an optimistic account of Africa and its economic prospects. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in economic development and agricultural economics.

This is an open access book.

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Our global food system is largely based on unsustainable industrial agricultural practices, is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, is controlled by a handful of large corporations and produces unhealthy food. Agroecology is a solution to these increasingly urgent problems. 

After decades of being dismissed by mainstream institutions and defended in obscurity by grassroots movements, some scientists and farmers, agroecology is suddenly in fashion. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, government agencies and even corporations are jumping on the bandwagon. But, are they for the same agroecology as developed by pioneering farmers, scientists and peasant social movements, or are they seeking to co-opt the concept and give it different content? 

Rosset and Altieri, two of the world’s leading agroecologists, outline the principles, history and currents of agroecological thought, the scientific evidence for agroecology, how to bring agroecology to scale and the contemporary politics of agroecology.

Table of contents:

Series Editors’ Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Agroecology at a Crossroads

• 1 The Principles of Agroecology

• 2 History and Currents Agroecological Thought

• 3 The Evidence for Agroecology

• 4 Bringing Agroecology to Scale

• 5 The Politics of Agroecology

Reviews:

“This is a timely and excellent book by two world leaders of agroecological thought and practice. In this highly readable book, Peter Rosset and Miguel Altieri offer a clear analysis of the principles of agroecology and its potential to address major social, economic and environmental challenges of food and farming in the 21st century. Most notably, the book demonstrates the importance of social organization, peasant agroecology schools and social movements for bringing agroecology to scale. By focusing on the contested nature of the science of agroecology and its contemporary politics, the authors invite the reader to embrace an agroecology that transforms — rather than conforms with — the dominant agri-food regime. A stimulating read!” -- Michel Pimbert, Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University

“This will be an important book that does an excellent job at summarizing what agroecology is as a science, a practice and a movement, as well as the debates that are currently going on regarding agroecology.” -- Ivette Perfecto, George W. Pack Professor of Natural Resources, University of Michigan

“This small book has a very important message for the agroecology movement as well as for each of us as agroecologists. The scientific basis of agroecology and how agroecology confronts the industrial agriculture model is now broadly accepted, but how this approach can overcome the political and economic power of this model is much more controversial. This book clearly and forcefully states that agroecology must also address the politics of the food system, who has power and control, and how what might be called political agroecology must be included so that deep change can occur. We must heed this call to action!” -- Steve Gliessman, Professor Emeritus of Agroecology, UC Santa Cruz, author of Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems

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This open access book develops a framework for advancing agroecology transformations focusing on power, politics and governance. It explores the potential of agroecology as a sustainable and socially just alternative to today’s dominant food regime. Agroecology is an ecological approach to farming that addresses climate change and biodiversity loss while contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. Agroecology transformations represent a challenge to the power of corporations in controlling food system and a rejection of the industrial food systems that are at the root of many social and ecological ills. 

In this book the authors analyse the conditions that enable and disable agroecology’s potential and present six ‘domains of transformation’ where it comes into conflict with the dominant food system: 

• Domain A: Rights and Access to Nature—Land, Water, Seeds and Biodiversity; 

• Domain B: Knowledge and Culture; 

• Domain C: Systems of Economic Exchange; 

• Domain D: Networks; 

• Domain E: Equity; 

• Domain F: Discourse 

The authors argue that food sovereignty, community-self organization and a shift to bottom-up governance are critical for the transformation to a socially just and ecologically viable food system. 

This book will be a valuable resource to researchers, students, policy makers and professionals across multidisciplinary areas including in the fields of food politics, international development, sustainability and resilience.

Reviews:

“At a time of converging crises— social, environmental, economic, health— agroecology is capturing global attention as a real alternative to the industrial food system and a way to mitigate climate change, biodiversity loss, the loss of farming knowledge, farmer insolvency, and more.  This timely book presents how agroecology, as a transformative vision and practice, combats the exploitative capitalist food system of oppression and marginalization, not only of the world’s farmers but of the primacy of human well-being and ecological health.  This book is an indispensable guide to transformative agroecology in its multiple domains, illustrated through multiple case studies and analysis of the roles of governance and power.” -- Molly D. Anderson, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Food Studies at Middlebury College, USA.

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What are the challenges and action points for agricultural sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa? This open access collection of papers offers technical analyses, policy recommendations and an overview of success stories to date. Each carefully selected paper provides valuable insights for improved policy making and defines relevant strategic priorities on Africa’s sustainable transformation process, which is in line with the international development agenda. Although agriculture remains the main source of income for Africa’s population, the sector is rain-fed subjecting it to the vagaries of weather and climate change. This volume demonstrates the rationale of developing a competitive, inclusive and sustainable agribusiness sector for Africa’s food security and structural transformation. 

From the impact of Bioenergy crop adoption and Drought Index Insurance to Agro-Industrialization, this volume is important reading for individual researchers, academic associations and professional bodies interested in African agricultural development. 

Table of contents:

Introduction: Understanding the Challenges of the Agricultural Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa

Improving Agricultural Productivity

• Improved Seeds and Agricultural Productivity of Family Farms in Cameroon

• Breaking the Traditional Trap: Assessing Drivers of Modern Technology Adoption by Smallholder Farmers in Hurungwe District, Zimbabwe

• Input Utilization and Agricultural Labor Productivity: A Gender Analysis

• Evaluation of Women’s On-Farm Trial of Drought Tolerant Maize in Southern Guinea Savannah Agro-Ecological Zone of Nigeria

• Impact of Bioenergy Crop Adoption on Total Crop Incomes of Farmers in Northern Ghana: The Case of Jatropha Curcas

Addressing Climate Change Challenges

• Profitability in a Sustainable Agricultural Production System: An Approach by the Soil and Water Conservation

• Land Tenure and Communities’ Vulnerability to Climate Shocks: Insights from the Niger Basin of Benin

• The Impact of Agricultural Insurance on the Demand for Supplemental Irrigation: A Randomized Controlled Trial Experimental Evidence in Northern Ghana

Promoting Agro-Industrialization

• Does the Development of the Agricultural Sector Affect the Manufacturing Sector?

• Transforming African Agriculture Through Special Economic Zones: Opportunities and Challenges

• Global Value Chains and Upgrading in Economic Community of West African States Countries

Conclusions: Enhancing the Resilience and Sustainability of the Agriculture Sector in sub-Saharan Africa

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The book uses an economic lens to identify the main features of climate-smart agriculture (CSA), its likely impact, and the challenges associated with its implementation.  Drawing upon theory and concepts from agricultural development, institutional, and resource economics, this book expands and formalizes the conceptual foundations of CSA. Focusing on the adaptation/resilience dimension of CSA, the text embraces a mixture of conceptual analyses, including theory, empirical and policy analysis, and case studies, to look at adaptation and resilience through three possible avenues: ex-ante reduction of vulnerability, increasing adaptive capacity, and ex-post risk coping.

The book is divided into three sections. The first section provides conceptual framing, giving an overview of the CSA concept and grounding it in core economic principles. The second section is devoted to a set of case studies illustrating the economic basis of CSA in terms of reducing vulnerability, increasing adaptive capacity and ex-post risk coping. The final section addresses policy issues related to climate change. Providing information on this new and important field in an approachable way, this book helps make sense of CSA and fills intellectual and policy gaps by defining the concept and placing it within an economic decision-making framework. 

This book will be of interest to agricultural, environmental, and natural resource economists, development economists, and scholars of development studies, climate change, and agriculture. It will also appeal to policy-makers, development practitioners, and members of governmental and non-governmental organizations interested in agriculture, food security and climate change. 

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This book reports on long-term comparative organic farming systems' research trials carried out over the last 5 years in the Southern Cape of South Africa, as well as research into the successes and failures of the organic sector and the technical tools required for sustainable development in South Africa, Zambia, Uganda and Tanzania. It includes 24 chapters organized into 4 parts. 

Part 1 (Chapters 1-6) discusses the historical development of organic farming systems, examines the global issues which confront us, and develops some concepts showing a progression in small-scale farmer development and how this can be supported with appropriate training and policy. The difference between national food self-sufficiency and household food security is examined, and the organic sector is introduced. 

Part 2 (Chapters 7-14) deals with capacity building and climate change. Holistic systems, inclusive participatory approaches, institution building and experiential learning are examined. Organic food production, farmer training, value chains, impact of drought on food prices and food availability, and urban water and energy use efficiency are described. 

Part 3 (Chapters 15-22) presents evidence on how to support organic farmers. It starts with 2 case studies on the well-developed organic sector in Uganda and the developing one in Zambia. The following chapters discuss soil carbon determination, comparison of organic and conventional farming systems, pest and disease control (e.g., chemical, holistic and biological control), soil fumigation, soil microbiology in organic and conventional systems, soil fertility changes and crop yield. 

Part 4 (Chapters 23-24) makes strategic suggestions about how to upscale organic farming and organic food systems in Southern Africa. This book is a vital resource for all stakeholders in organic agriculture. 

Table of contents:

1. The developing organic sector in Southern and Eastern Africa: what have we learned about sustainable development?

2. An overview of global organic and regenerative agriculture movements.

3. Organic research contributes to sector development and good organic policy: the Danish, Swiss, American and African case studies.

4. The Organic Academy of IFOAM-Organics International: training multipliers in the developing world.

5. Understanding a food systems approach.

6. BERAS - a global network of food systems with examples from Sweden, Haiti, Tanzania and India.

7. The likely impact of the 2015-2018 drought in South Africa: lessons from the 2008 food price crisis and future implications.

8. The use of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) to support organic food systems in Africa.

9. Strengthening participation in the organic value chain for small-scale farmers in Southern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

10. Participatory Guarantee Systems as an organic market entry point for small-scale farmers in South Africa.

11. Development of an inclusive value chain for peri-urban micro-farmers.

12. Supporting vulnerable communities in the Eastern Cape: assessing the rainfall evidence.

13. Water efficiency, energy efficiency and suburban vegetable production.

14. Experiential training of farmers and university diploma students in KwaZulu-Natal and the Southern Cape.

15. The National Organic Agriculture Movement of Uganda.

16. Factors contributing to adoption or disadoption of organic agriculture in Zambia.

17. The rapid incineration field test as an accurate, cost-effective and practical tool for estimating soil carbon in Africa.

18. The Nelson Mandela long-term comparative organic farming systems research trials: baseline study and trial design.

19. Comparative water use efficiency and water retention in the Mandela trials.

20. Biological and chemical soil fumigation and pest and disease management comparisons in the Western Cape.

21. Initial assessment of selected biological soil health indicators in organic versus conventional cropping systems in field trials in South Africa.

22. Soil fertility changes and crop yields from the first 4 years of the Mandela trials.

23. Urban agriculture: challenges and opportunities in urban water management and planning.

24. A future strategy for organic development in Southern Africa.

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The current structure of the global food system is increasingly recognized as unsustainable. In addition to the environmental impacts of agricultural production, unequal patterns of food access and availability are contributing to non-communicable diseases in middle- and high-income countries and inadequate caloric intake and dietary diversity among the world’s poorest. While the need to transform food systems is widely accepted, the policy pathways for achieving such a vision often are highly contested, and the enabling conditions for implementation are frequently absent. Moreover, transformation implicitly requires reforms that depart from the status quo, which will generate resistance from those groups that stand to lose the most.

These dynamics are examined in detail in a new book co-edited by Danielle Resnick and Johan Swinnen on The Political Economy of Food System Transformation: Pathways to Progress in a Polarized World, published jointly by IFPRI and Oxford University Press. The book emphasizes that the viability of reforms requires joint consideration of both the complexity of local, national, and global food systems and the increasingly polarized political and institutional contexts in which food policy decision-making occurs. In recent decades, food systems have encompassed a broader range of non-traditional stakeholders, including insurance companies, banks, technology firms, and transnational civil society advocates. Moreover, food systems are no longer just responsible for generating sufficient calories but also are expected to meet a whole host of other objectives, including racial and gender justice, human rights, and the preservation of biodiversity and indigenous knowledge. Yet, not only are food systems changing but so are politics; a wave of populism over the last decade has caused misinformation and ideological bias to compete with rigorous analysis when informing policy recommendations. Polarization at the national level is also reflected in the geopolitical sphere and exacerbated in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A perceived crisis of multilateralism makes it difficult to coordinate on cross-national issues, such as climate change and trade, while the rise of multi-stakeholderism in global convenings like the United Nations Food Systems Summit obscures who is ultimately obligated and accountable for food system actions.

Given these complexities, how do we achieve action? To address this question, this book draws on scholarship from a global set of authors whose disciplines span economics, political science, nutrition, ecology, geography, and public policy. Their contributions, which draw on diverse methodologies, analyze binding constraints to reform and showcase factors that have led to progressive change in high-, middle-, and low-income countries. The substantive areas of political economy focus include, among others, repurposing agricultural subsidies, reducing red meat and ultra-processed food consumption, increasing uptake of appropriate biotechnologies, adopting sugar-sweetened beverage taxes, implementing the European Union’s Farm to Fork Strategy, adapting urban food system councils to the Global South, and tracking accountability for global food system commitments. In doing so, the authors highlight the necessity of navigating incentive structures, identifying strategies and opportunities for mobilization, and finding innovative policy designs that broaden coalitions for change.

 Table of contents:

1: Introduction: Political Economy of Food System Transformation. 

2: Facts, Interests, and Values: Identifying Points of Convergence and Divergence for Food Systems. 

3: The Political Economy of Reforming Agricultural Support Policies. 

4: From Re-instrumenting to Re-purposing Farm Support Policies. 

5: Policy Coalitions in Food Systems Transformation. 

6: Government Response to Ultra-Processed and Sugar Beverages Industries in Developing Nations: The Need to Build Coalitions Across Policy Sectors. 

7: Ultra-processed Food Environments: Aligning Policy Beliefs from the State, Market, and Civil Society. 

8: Asymmetric Power in Global Food System Advocacy.

9: The Political Economy of Bundling Socio-Technical Innovations to Transform Agri-Food Systems. 

10: Sustainable Food and Farming: When Public Perceptions Depart from Science. 

11: Enabling Positive Tipping Points in Public Support for Food System Transformation: The Case of Meat Consumption. 

12: Urban Food Systems Governance in Africa: Towards a Realistic Model for Transformation. 

13: The Political Economy of Food System Transformation in the European Union. 

14: Tracking Progress and Generating Accountability for Global Food System Commitments. 

15: Conclusions. 

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This book provides a synthesis of the key issues and challenges facing agriculture and food production in Southern Africa.

 Southern Africa is facing numerous challenges from diverse issues such as agricultural transformations, growing populations, urbanization and climate change. These challenges place great pressure on food security, agriculture, water availability and other natural resources, as well as impacting biodiversity. Drawing on case studies from Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the chapters in this book consider these challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective, covering key areas in constraints to production, the most important building blocks of good farming practices, and established and emerging technologies. This book will be a valuable support for informing new policies and processes aimed at improving food production and security and developing sustainable agriculture in Southern Africa. 

This informative volume will be key reading for those interested in agricultural science, African studies, rural studies, development studies and sustainability. It will also be a valuable resource for policymakers, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and agricultural practitioners. 

Table of contents:

Part I: Overview of Southern African agriculture

• Ch. 1| Introduction

• Ch. 2| The strategic role of agriculture in the economic space of the Southern Africa region

Part II: Major drivers and constraints impacting agricultural transformation

• Ch. 3| Twice as many people in 2050: The need for agricultural transformation in Southern Africa

• Ch. 4| Climate change and the threat to food production in Southern Africa

• Ch. 5| Land rich but water poor: The prospects for agricultural intensification in Southern Africa

• Ch. 6| The big giveaway: Farmers and biological constraints

• Ch. 7| The impact of global and regional markets on agricultural transformation in Southern Africa

Part III: Current technologies

• Ch. 8| Soil fertility maintenance and nutrient management for agricultural transformation

• Ch. 9| The role of seed systems development in African agricultural transformation

• Ch. 10| Scaling climate-smart agriculture for agricultural transformation in Southern Africa

• Ch. 11| Crop improvement for agricultural transformation in Southern Africa

• Ch. 12| Integrated pest management in Southern Africa: Approaches and enabling policy issues

• Ch. 13| Options for improving stored product protection in Southern Africa

• Ch. 14| Technology as a transformative tool in livestock production

• Ch. 15| Technologies for agricultural transformation: Animal health

Part IV: Emerging technologies

• Ch. 16| Harnessing ecosystem services in transforming agriculture in Southern Africa

• Ch. 17| The role of mechanization in transformation of smallholder agriculture in Southern Africa: Experience from Zimbabwe

• Ch. 18| Advanced genetic technologies for improving plant production

• Ch. 19| Unleashing the power of vegetables and fruits in Southern Africa

• Ch. 20| Going digital: Harnessing the power of emerging technologies for the transformation of Southern African agriculture

• Ch. 21| Reducing the impact of mycotoxigenic fungi on food safety and security in Southern Africa

• Ch. 22| Small-scale renewable energy as a catalyst for advancing agriculture and food security in Southern Africa

• Ch. 23| Trees on farms and farmers in the forest: Good practices and a need for policy

Part V: Improving policies and processes

• Ch. 24| Land reform and land tenure for agricultural transformation in Southern Africa

• Ch. 25| Engendering agricultural transformation

• Ch. 26| Building human capacity to transform agriculture in Southern Africa

• Ch. 27| Urban markets and agricultural transformation in Southern Africa

• Ch. 28| Importance of small rural markets in the transformation of Southern African agriculture

• Ch. 29| Agricultural growth corridors in sub-Saharan Africa – new hope for agricultural transformation and rural development?

             : The case of the Southern agricultural growth corridor of Tanzania

• Ch. 30| Policy options for cropping systems diversification in Southern Africa

• Ch. 31| Entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy for agricultural transformation in Southern Africa

• Ch. 32| Changing farm structure in Africa: Implications on agricultural transformation in Southern Africa

• Ch. 33| Food security in Africa: A complex issue requiring new approaches to scientific evidence and quantitative analysis

Part VI: Conclusions

• Ch. 34|The way forward

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