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Private investment in African agriculture
I have been trying to estimate how much private investment is going into African agriculture. I can’t find a comprehensive source, but on the private equity side, Reuters has a decent summary of...
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Is agriculture good for development?
Last month I moved to Ethiopia to help set up the Agricultural Transformation Agency. It’s an initiative of the government to help increase the productivity and improve the livelihoods of smallholder...
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The last mile is the hardest
Agricultural production accounts for about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, rising to almost 30% if you include land-use change due to agriculture. So any technology that allows us to increase...
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More on land grabs
I continue to scan local and international media for news on ‘land grabs’. I’m finding the coverage is more nuanced and less breathless than it was a few years ago, but still disturbingly short on...
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Agriculture links of the week
1. The Wall Street Journal on why US policy on biofuels is counterproductive and self-defeating (unless you believe its only objective is to raise corn prices); producing 10 litres of ethanol from corn...
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Bill Gates on agriculture: right on measurement, only half-right on technology
Many media outlets reported a speech Bill Gates gave to the UN food agencies in Rome. He complained that they have performed poorly and failed to measure their progress; and advocated a greater focus...
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Why can’t agriculture in Africa be more like Asia?
Last month, the G8 launched a ‘New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition’. There’s not much new about it: in particular, there’s no new public money, just an attempt to revive the commitments made...
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Agriculture links
First, an interview with Roy Steiner at the Gates Foundation about the African green revolution. Roy helped arrange funding for Ethiopia’s Agricultural Transformation Agency, where I used to work, and...
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The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition: a necessary step, or a...
The past weekend saw a nutrition summit in London. The conference recognised what economists and development practitioners have known for a long time: hunger and malnutrition are usually caused by...
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Rice prices and West African production
Steve Wiggins and Sharada Keats at the Overseas Development Institute have just put out a briefing on ‘The end of cheap rice’. They argue that the high rice prices of 2007-08 that I have written about...
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