Agriculture
Agriculture is a key pathway out of poverty. Getting growth moving through different types of agriculture in ways that benefit poor people is a major policy priority. However, while many of the technical problems and solutions are well known, previous efforts have been found wanting.
IDS research aims to revitalise the debate on agriculture. Our focuses are on the politics of policy processes surrounding agricultural development, particularly in Africa. Through context sensitive research in a diversity of settings, we aim to explore new pathways for sustainable agriculture which benefit the poor and marginalised.
Work on agriculture involves a number of IDS teams and is conducted with partners worldwide.

Dolf te Lintelo - Research Fellow and Cities Cluster Co-Leader
- Cities Health and Nutrition
- T: +44 (0)1273 915767
- E: d.telintelo@ids.ac.uk


Edoardo Masset - Research Fellow
- Governance Rural Futures
- T: +44 (0)1273 915807
- E: e.masset@ids.ac.uk

Ian Scoones - Research Fellow
- Resource Politics Rural Futures Green Transformations
- T: +44 (0)1273 915679
- E: i.scoones@ids.ac.uk


Jody Harris - Post Doctoral Researcher
- Health and Nutrition
- T: +44 (0) 1273 915742
- E: j.harris@ids.ac.uk

John Thompson - Research Fellow
- Rural Futures Resource Politics Green Transformations
- T: +44 (0)1273 915682
- E: j.thompson@ids.ac.uk

Juan Carlos Munoz-Mora - Post Doctoral Researcher
- Conflict and Violence
- T: 01273 915648
- E: J.Munoz-Mora@ids.ac.uk




Marina Apgar - Research Fellow
- Participation Resource Politics
- T: +44 (0)1273 915778
- E: m.apgar@ids.ac.uk

Martin Greeley - Research Fellow
- Rural Futures Digital and Technology
- T: +44 (0)1273 915749
- E: m.greeley@ids.ac.uk

Melissa Leach - Director
- Directorate and Development Office Board of Trustees
- T: +44 (0)1273 915674
- E: m.leach@ids.ac.uk

Miguel Loureiro - Research Fellow
- Governance Rural Futures
- T: +44 (0)1273 915707
- E: m.loureiro@ids.ac.uk

Nathan Oxley - Communications and Impact Manager
- Rural Futures Resource Politics
- T: +44 (0)1273 915826
- E: n.oxley@ids.ac.uk

Nicholas Nisbett - Cluster Leader Research Fellow
- Health and Nutrition
- T: +44 (0)1273 915839
- E: n.c.nisbett@ids.ac.uk

Oliver Burch - Project Manager
- T: +44 (0)1273 915670
- E: o.burch@ids.ac.uk

Rachel Sabates-Wheeler - Research Fellow
- Rural Futures Cities Health and Nutrition
- T: +44 (0)1273 915759
- E: r.sabates-wheeler@ids.ac.uk

Richard Longhurst - Research Associate
- Rural Futures Health and Nutrition
- T: +44 (0)1273 915751
- E: r.longhurst@ids.ac.uk
Accelerating Progress in Reducing Hunger and Undernutrition
This programme will focus on how agriculture can deliver better nutrition outcomes by developing evidence-based policy options and tools for businesses, governments, NGOs and donors. More details
Addressing Synergies and Trade-Offs between Goals for Climate-Resilient Agricultural Systems
What factors lead state and market actors in Africa to commit to implementing more ‘climate smart’ and ‘climate resilient’ agricultural approaches and practices that promoting more sustainable and pro-poor outcomes? This study is examining how different governance systems are handling the complex interface between food, energy, water and climate in pursuit of the SDGs pertaining to these sectors in four countries in Africa. More details
African Farmer Game
African Farmer is a free, open source game that simulates the complex decisions and uncertainties faced by small-scale farmers living in Sub-Saharan Africa. More details
AgMIP Global Economic Model Intercomparison
The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) hosted by the Columbia University Earth Institute is a major international effort to assess the state of global agricultural modelling and to understand climate impacts on the agricultural sector. More details
Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA)
Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA) is a five-year, DFID-funded, research programme consortium which aims to produce new evidence and policy insights into different pathways to agricultural commercialisation in Africa and their differential outcomes for local people and economies. More details
Assessing the Impacts of Enhancing Access to Nutritious Foods
The objective of the research is to develop capacity and an analytical approach for the analysis of value chains-based initiatives aimed at enhancing access and consumption of nutritious foods by the poor and to use this learning to develop research proposals on leveraging value chains for nutrition. More details
Challenges and Opportunities for Rural Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Mixed-Methods Study to Inform Policy and Programs
The goal of the Challenges and Opportunities for Rural Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa study is to strengthen and deepen knowledge of: the employment dynamics of rural young people, and the relationships between these dynamics and welfare; and the socially and spatially differentiated perspectives of rural young people on work, employment and livelihoods. Research is taking place in Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Niger and Burkina Faso. More details
China and Brazil in African Agriculture
The question of how Brazil, China and other 'rising powers' may change African agricultural development is critical and timely. More details
Economy-wide Implications of Agricultural Sector Scenario Projections
The aim of this project is to link the world agricultural model IMPACT housed at IFRI with the global multi-region CGE model GLOBE in order to provide quantitative analyses of the wider implications of agricultural sector scenario projections generated by IMPACT for the rest of the economy, and to enable an assessment of the aggregate welfare effects associated with changes in the agricultural sector that include economy-wide linkage effects. More details
Enhancing Effectiveness of Multi-Stakeholder Platforms in Food and Agriculture
The kind of challenges that the food and agriculture sector is faced with increasingly asks for approaches that can engage effectively with related complexities. Much is invested in multi-stakeholder platforms as they hold a potential for playing an important role in doing so. However, there is a great need to assess their contribution to inclusive and sustainable development, and to assess what makes for effective platforms. More details
Fighting Over Land: Theory and Empirical Evidence from Colombia
The aim of this project is to develop a research agenda on the long-term effect of civil conflict on institutions, particularly on land tenure structure, in Colombia. More details
Framework for Assessing the Impacts of Efforts to Enhance Access to Nutritious Foods
The objective of this research is to develop capacity and an analytical approach for the analysis of value chains-based initiatives aimed at enhancing access and consumption of nutritious foods by the poor and to use this learning to develop research proposals on leveraging value chains for nutrition. More details
Future Agricultures Consortium
The DFID funded Future Agricultures Consortium is an Africa-based alliance of research organisations seeking to provide timely, high-quality and independent information and advice to improve agricultural policy and practice in Africa. More details
GM Crops and Indigenous Management Skill
This project examines the effects of GM seeds on the ‘indigenous management skill’ (IMS) that is crucial to the productivity and sustainability of small-scale crop cultivation. More details
GODAN Action - Enabling practical engagement with open data in agriculture and nutrition
GODAN Action brings together agriculture and nutrition specialists and open data experts and will support GODAN in its mission by building people’s capacity to engage with open data More details
Groundwater Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa (GroFutures)
GroFutures is a 4-year interdisciplinary research project aiming to develop the scientific basis and participatory management processes by which groundwater resources can be used sustainably for poverty alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa. More details
Impact Evaluation of the PSNP and HAPB 2012
Since 2003, the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) has been implementing a new Food Security Programme (FSP). In 2009, this programme was reviewed and reformulated. More details
Integrated Seed Sector Development in Africa (ISSD-Africa)
The goal of ISSD Africa Programme is to support the development of a market-oriented, pluralistic, vibrant and dynamic seed sector in Africa for providing both female and male smallholder farmers access to quality seed of superior varieties. More details
Livelihoods After Land Reform
This collaborative project, which involves IDS and is led by the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) in South Africa, asks: to what extent is land redistribution in southern Africa achieving poverty reduction and livelihood improvement objectives? More details
Matasa Fellows Network
An exciting initiative to support young African scholars engage their research with policy on youth employment in Africa. More details

Inclusive Structural Change: Case Studies on Innovations in Breeding Practices in Kenya and Anti-Retroviral Therapy Service Provision in Mozambique
IDS Working Paper 505 (2018)Innovation, accompanied by structural change, is at the heart of economic growth and development. Yet there is limited evidence to understand interactions between innovation, structural change and inclusion in the context of low-income and emerging countries, or how these processes best support sustainable and inclusive societies. More details

Addressing Climate Change Uncertainty in Dryland Kachchh, India
IDS Policy Briefing 147 (2018)The semi-arid district of Kachchh in Gujarat, India is known for its erratic rainfall, water scarcity, and droughts. Climate change has intensified extreme temperature and rainfall patterns and also led to changes to the long coastline. More details

Inception Report: External evaluation of mobile phone technology-based nutrition and agriculture advisory services in Africa and South Asia
The GSM Association (GSMA), working with a wide range of mobile network operators and civil society organisations, is launching a series of nutrition-focused m-health and m-agriculture initiatives in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. GSMA refers to nutrition-enhanced initiatives collectively as ‘m-nutrition’. This report summarises the plans for an impact evaluation of two of these nutrition-enhanced initiatives: mHealth in Tanzania and mAgri in Ghana. More details

Public–Private Cooperation for Secure and Inclusive Rural Economies
IDS Policy Briefing 146 (2017)How do public–private collaborations enable secure and inclusive rural economies? Alongside private sector investment, government provision of infrastructure, research and extension services and support for farmer organisations remains crucial. More details

Improving the Impact of Climate Information Services in Kenya’s Arid and Semi-Arid Lands
IDS Policy Briefing 145 (2017)Climate variability and change are affecting millions of poor people in Kenya, particularly in arid and semi-arid lands. Significant investments are being made in developing Climate Information Services (CIS) which are tailored to the needs of pastoralists and agro-pastoralists and aim to help them adapt to the impact of climate change in these regions. More details

Valuing Agroecological Farmers: findings from participatory research on alternative economic approaches to support agroecology in the UK
This paper looks at the potential usefulness of triple bottom line accounting, and also explores other approaches, in financial accounting, for ecological and social outcomes and the effects of different farming methods. It then provides details of the presentations given by three witnesses and a summary of the outcomes of the farmer panel deliberation. More details

Using quantitative methods to evaluate mobile phone technology based nutrition and agriculture advisory services in Ghana
This brief focuses on the quantitative impact evaluation in Ghana, led by IFPRI; a key component of the mNutrition impact evaluation. More details

Using quantitative methods to evaluate mobile phone technology based nutrition and agriculture advisory services in Tanzania
This brief focuses on the quantitative component of the impact evaluation of mNutrition in Tanzania, led by IDS, GAMOS and IFPRI. More details

Valuing Agroecological Farmers: What Can We Learn From Alternative Economic Approaches to Ensure the Contribution of Agroecological Farmers is Valued Appropriately? Findings From Participatory Research
This paper looks at the potential usefulness of triple bottom line accounting, and also explores other approaches, in financial accounting, for ecological and social outcomes and the effects of different farming methods. It then provides details of the presentations given by three witnesses and a summary of the outcomes of the farmer panel deliberation. More details

Why Access to Land is Vital for Sustainable, Healthy and Fair Food Systems: Strategies for Increasing Access to Land for Agroecological Farming
In partnership between the Institute of Development Studies and the Land Workers’ Alliance, research has been undertaken to identify strategies for increasing access to land for agroecological production, in order to contribute to a transition towards sustainable – or even regenerative – food systems in the UK. This briefing summarises these strategies. More details

Youth Savings Groups in Africa: They’re a Family Affair
Enterprise Development and Microfinance (2017)Based on field work in Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda and Ghana, in the paper we provide new evidence that young people’s engagement with savings groups in Africa is deeply embedded in networks of family and social relations. Savings group members rely on money that is given to them by husbands, boyfriends and parents in order to save, and give some of their shareouts and loans to family and friends. More details

Public-Private Collaborations: Can they Deliver Secure and Inclusive Rural Economies?
This paper looks at the role of public-private collaborations, specifically public-private partnerships (PPPs), in enabling secure and inclusive rural economies. More details

Rural Transformation, Cereals and Youth in Africa: What Role for International Agricultural Research?
Outlook on Agriculture 46.3 (2017)Young people are increasingly linked to targeted agriculture and food security interventions. In Africa, the argument is that the combination of agricultural value chains, technology and entrepreneurship will unlock a sweet spot for youth employment. More details

A New Professionalism for Agricultural Research for Development
International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability (2017)
Configurations of Agency and Power in the Academic Discourse on the Green Revolution in East Africa
Working Paper by Saurabh Arora on the representations of 'agency' in human and non-human actors (for example, governments, scientists and technologies) in literature on the Green Revolution in East Africa. The author also explores what is masked or hidden by the way these agents are represented. More details

Agronomy for Development: The Politics of Knowledge in Agricultural Research
Over the last decade there has been renewed interest in food security and the state of the global food system. Population growth, climate change and food price spikes have combined to focus new attention on the technologies and institutions that underpin the production and consumption of food that is varied, nutritious and safe. More details

Mozambique’s Agriculture and the Brazilian Influence: The Discourse-Politics of ProSAVANA and Global Agrarian Disputes

Africa’s Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives
IDS Bulletin 48.3 (2017)Who are the youth and what is the problem? Are entrepreneurship and self-employment the solution? And what about youth aspirations? Such questions are addressed in this issue of the IDS Bulletin, drawing from the literature on how development research affects policy and noting that it says little about how young researchers move into policy engagement. More details

Africa’s Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives
IDS Bulletin 48.3 (2017)Who are the youth and what is the problem? Are entrepreneurship and self-employment the solution? And what about youth aspirations? Such questions are addressed in this issue of the IDS Bulletin, drawing from the literature on how development research affects policy and noting that it says little about how young researchers move into policy engagement. More details
What does 'the landscape of opportunity' look like for youth in rural Africa?
16 Mar 2018By Jim Sumberg
To fight malnutrition, we need to understand agri-food value chains
07 Feb 2018By Maria del Mar Maestre Morales
Savings groups for young Africans: a (financial) game changer?
06 Feb 2018By (incomplete), Jim Sumberg